About 31% of adults text while driving and they're also more likely to call others, surf web

Source: clorelaw.com

In an age when people feel a need to be in constant contact with others, drivers aren't putting down their phones while behind the wheel. Despite the dangers and laws against distracted driving, more than 60 percent of adults talk on their phones while driving, and those individuals are more likely to text and surf the web while operating the vehicle, too.

But what drives this majority of adults who talk on the phone and the estimated 31 percent who text while driving to do so? A study released in February using Pew Research Center data from 2010 examined the sociological factors that lead drivers to partake in these two dangerous habits along with also surfing the web or using apps behind the wheel.

The study found texting in public has become more normal, so has texting while driving because of this need to stay connected with family and friends. It discovered that drivers who use their phone for either texting, talking or surfing the web are more likely to do all of them. And it also stated individuals who tend to be more rebellious are more likely than others to do all of these actions while driving.

There is no national ban on cell phone use, but many states have laws against specific uses. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, just four states don't have a law banning texting and driving and 14 states prohibit drivers from using hand-held cell phones behind the wheel.

More than 60 percent of drivers talk on their phone while driving.

The study revealed more than half of adults who drive talk on their phone while doing so. That number is far greater among 77 undergraduate students at the University of Maryland who were surveyed with 88 percent of students saying they have talked on the phone while driving.

Students who were interviewed said they viewed talking and driving a less risky behavior, especially when it is done hands free.

Wearing Bluetooth headsets or simply putting the device on speaker phone allows the driver to keep both hands on the wheel while using their phone. It essentially becomes akin to talking to someone in the passenger seat, just the technology allows the driver to talk with someone outside the vehicle.

Senior business major Allison Baker, who said she doesn't text and drive, puts her phone on speaker and places it in the cup holder between the seats to talk on the phone while behind the wheel.

“I think it's a lot about the eye contact,” Baker said. “If you are looking at a phone and trying to send a text you are focusing on the phone you can't see the road. But if you aren't holding onto the phone, you are able to see what's going on, and I kind of feel like you can multitask better then.”

There's a link between texting while driving and the need for constant connection with others.

Maybe on a five-minute drive to the grocery store that text can wait, but what happens when your phone buzzes and you still have 25 minutes left on your trip? As texting has become more common, society now expects quick responses.

And with practically everything an individual might need at their fingertips, going 30 minutes or an hour without checking the phone is tough.

It's this constant need for contact with friends and family the study says is leading to people texting and driving. Senior landscape architecture major Karl Griner agrees.

“It does annoy me if I have someone text me, and I can't look at it,” Griner said. “I have to know what they're saying.”

He said he tries to limit checking his phone to when he is at stop lights, but sometimes it can't wait. Especially on longer rides, Griner said he always checks to see who the message is from to decide if it's important enough to risk texting while driving.

Texting while driving is more prevalent among individuals who commonly disregard social norms.

The study found that drivers who partake in risky behavior elsewhere, such as texting nude photos to another person, are more likely to be the ones texting while driving.

Baker said her parents were lenient growing up, but not when it came to driving. They harped on the importance of not drinking or texting while driving. As a result, she doesn't text and drive. She doesn't fit the mold the study labels as individuals who are deviant from societal norms.

A bus driver at Maryland, though, doesn't think there is a category of people who are more likely to text.

“Nowadays, it’s pretty much everybody," the bus driver said. "I know people of all types of personalities. Everybody does it pretty much. No one is really immune.”

Motivation for texting while driving varies from mundane to important conversations.

AT&T has had an ad campaign based on the phrase, "it can wait," referring to the idea that no text message is worth the risk of texting and driving.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Association reported that 3,328 people were killed in 2012 in a distracted driver accident. That figure accounted for 18 percent of all deadly crashes that year.

The study found that drivers don't seem to care if the text can wait. The conversations people have range from everyday talk to what people deem as more important, perhaps work related or at least more urgent than saying hello.

For Briana Thomas, a student at Maryland, she said she usually sends messages on the way to school because there are classes she can't text in when she arrives.



The students interviewed all said they didn't know anyone who had been in an accident texting while driving, but they did say if they had it might deter them from doing it. Instead, the need for constant contact while behind the wheel has led to many adult drivers texting and talking on the phone.

"I think it's just this concept that it's not going to happen to them or they've frequently done it in the past," Baker said. "So again and again there hasn't been in consequences, so it's like, 'I've been doing this for two years and nothing has happened.'”