Teenagers, Cell Phones, and Car Accidents

Across most of the United States, typically our teenagers are starting to learn to drive at fifteen years old and are driving themselves by the age of sixteen. With so many new teenage drivers on the road, the chances of teenagers being in a fatal accident are greater than any other age group. Now our teenagers are not only learning to drive and deal with the distractions of radios, passengers, and other cars, but now they have cell phones with them in the car. As the statistics show, this has added another spike in teenage deaths related to car accidents.

Teenagers have enough distractions to worry about while driving. By talking on their used cell phones, they are putting everyone at risk on the roads. Typically cell phones require that the driver hold the phone with one hand and the steering wheel with just one hand. This provides very limited control over the car and the direction in which it travels. Having no real experience with the control of the car, teenagers need to have both hands on the wheel at all times.

Most cars on the market today that our teenagers could afford to drive do not come with built in cell phone holders. This means that when the phone rings within the car, the driver will again take a hand off the wheel to feel for the phone and potentially take their eyes off the road to locate the phone and see who is calling. Even at speeds under twenty miles an hour, taking your eyes off the road long enough to check your phone to see who’s calling is long enough to lose control of the car and cause an accident or death.

Many retailers of refurbished cell phones now sell Bluetooth devices that enable the phone to work without having to hold the phone while driving. While that solves one problem, it fails to prevent another. Drivers that are watching the road should not engage in conversations on the phone. If the conversation goes on it will cause the driver to focus on the call at the expense of being able to focus on the road. Even if the driver can see the road and has both hands on the wheel, if their mind is on that conversation, they will not be able to respond to road conditions nearly as fast, resulting in accidents.

Being a new driver is hard enough for teenagers, there is a lot that they need to learn to pay attention to on the road and the last thing they need is another distraction to take their attention off of the road. It used to be that our biggest distraction was turning the radio on in the car and talking with friends. Now, these cell phones have added a whole new degree of distraction to our young drivers. There is one final reason why no one should be using cell phones while driving their cars, in many states it’s now against the law. Put the phones down and focus on the road!