As medical director of Emergency Services at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Dr. Barry Gilmore has witnessed countless tragic injuries and deaths resulting from careless driving. Gilmore says if teenagers would really think about the consequences, they would try to be better drivers.

“Kids die everyday from injuries resulting from being distracted while driving – and they shouldn’t. We’ve got to get a grip on this situation. I really hope we can convince kids that texting and driving is deadly,” said Gilmore.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens.  Traffic accident rates for 16-to 19-year-old drivers are higher than those of any other age group.

The Text Factor
There are many reasons teenagers are more likely to have an accident, but talking and texting on a cell phone while driving ranks highest on the list. When kids text and drive, it forces them to look down at the phone causing them to swerve, miss stop signs, red lights or even people who could be crossing the road.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drivers who are texting can be more than 20 times more likely to crash than non-distracted drivers.

Most teens engage in distracted driving even though almost all of them are aware that it’s dangerous. This is according to a survey of nearly 2,000 male and female teen drivers ages 16 to 19 conducted in May 2010 by the American Automobile Association and Seventeen Magazine. Almost nine in 10 teenage drivers (86 percent) have driven while distracted, even though 84 percent say they know they shouldn’t, the survey found. More than one-third of the respondents said they nearly crashed because of distracted driving.

Teens Admit to Texting and Driving
The survey also found that teens who text while driving sent an average of 23 text messages during drive time per month. They are also some of the most vulnerable drivers on the road due to inexperience – and adding cell phones to the mix only compounds the dangers.

Gilmore says, “It seems harsh to speak so boldly, but teens will only continue to be critically injured, or killed if they text and drive. That is the message parents should continue to tell their driving teenagers. Just like drinking and driving, texting and driving don’t mix.”

As the U.S. Department of Transportation opens a summit on distracted driving, attention is being focused on the dangers of cell phone use and texting while driving.  Safe Kids believes that more distracted driving measures on the federal and state level will only help improve safety on the roads; however, we can all do our part to help stop distracted drving today!  Join us in signing the Pledge to Stop Distracted Driving and commit to stop using your hand-held electronic device while driving.  This includes features such as texting, calling, using GPS- anything that takes your attention off the road.  It's a simple step that will help keep our roads safer for children, teens and adults!

Visit www.safekids.org to sign the Pledge today!