Distractions for teen drivers worse than previously thought

ALBANY — Recently released results of a study using crash videos of teen drivers has found reason to believe that distracting driving is a much more serious factor in vehicle accidents than was previously thought.

The study by the AAA Foundation of Highway Safety and the University of Iowa found that distraction played at least some part in nearly six out of ten moderate to severe teen crashes, or four times as many as official estimates based on police reports,

Using in-vehicle event recorders provided by Lytx, Inc., researchers analyzed the six seconds leading up to a crash in nearly 1,700 videos of teen drivers. Results showed that distraction was a factor in 58 percent of all crashes studied; including 89 percent of road departure crashes and 76 percent of rear-end crashes.

According to the study, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration previously estimated distractions to be a factor in only 14 percent of all teen driver crashes.

“I was a little surprised to see the percentages so high,” said Sgt. Dana Harnage with the Georgia State Patrol in Albany. “but over the years I’ve seen too many accidents from fiddling with an air conditioner, a radio dial or other distractions.”

Distractions don’t always come from inside the vehicle, Harnage said, citing a past situation where drivers of two vehicles side-swiped each other because both were watching a crop dusting airplane.

According to the AAA study, the most common forms of distraction leading to a crash by a teen driver included:

Interacting with one or more passengers: 15 percent of crashes

Cell phone use: 12 percent of crashes

Looking at something in the vehicle: 10 percent of crashes

Singing/moving to music: 8 percent of crashes

Grooming: 6 percent of crashes

Reaching for an object: 6 percent of crashes

In consideration that passengers and cell phones represent the two most prevalent distractions for teen drivers involved in crashes, AAA has made a recommendation that states prohibit cell phone use by teen drivers and restrict passengers to one non-family member for the first six months of driving.

According to AAA, graduated driver licensing laws allow new drivers to gain practical experience in a relatively safe environment by restricting their exposure to risky situations.

Cpl. Dustin Hickox with the traffic division of the Albany Police Department, said that while it’s unlawful in Georgia for drivers under the age of 18 to use a cellphone, the rule is difficult to enforce — especially for texting — and while it’s possible after a traffic stop to determine if the driver has been making recent calls, the process is difficult and typically employed only in cases of severe injury or death.

“It’s hard for officers to detect,” Hickox said. “Usually the drivers hold the phones way down, or claim they were only looking up a number.”

Hickox stresses that drivers of all ages should be mindful of dangerous distractions, with inexperienced teens especially susceptible.

“Dealing with some degree of distraction is a learned behavior,” Hickox said. “But most teens don’t have the experience to balance their attention between distractions like cellphones, eating or adjusting a radio while managing a vehicle half a ton or more.”

In its report, AAA recommends that parents teach their teens about the danger of cellphone use and restrict passengers during the learning-to-drive process. Further, AAA suggests that before parents begin practice driving with teens, they should create a written parent-teen driving agreement that includes strict ground rules related to distraction.

Both Hickox and Harnage agree that while strict parental oversight for young drivers is unlikely to work in every case, a percentage of the teens are sure to heed the warnings.

“I’ve run into kids who drove with their cellphones shut up in their gloves boxes and they were fine with that,” Harnage said, “because that was one of their conditions. Some kids do listen to their parents.”

According to the AAA report, teens have the highest crash rate of any group in the United States. About 963,000 drivers age 16-19 were involved in police-reported crashes in 2013, the most recent year of available data. The crashes resulted in 383,000 injuries and 2,865 deaths. The full research report is available on the Foundation’s website, www.aaafoundation.org.