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Last week I posted some statistics about adults that texted while driving. Well new numbers have come out from the LG Text Ed Survey. You can find the results by click here. Here are some of the things that stood out most from the research:

• 44 percent of parents admitted to texting and driving.
• 28 percent of parents admit to engaging in some form of “sexting”
• 42 percent of parents admit to texting someone while at the dinner table; whereas 69 percent of teens admit to texting at the dinner table.

• 45 percent of teens admit to texting and driving. And only 4 percent of parents believe their teens ever text while driving.
• 41 percent of teens admit to sending, receiving, or forwarding a text that said something sexual, while only 11 percent of parents thought their teens had ever sexted.

• 90 percent of texting parents felt closer to their teen as a result of the medium.
• 58 percent of teens said being able to text their parents made them feel closer.
• 83 percent of teens prefer their parents check in with them via text.

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/do-as-i-say-not-as-i-text-98497159.html

It seems like all of the PSAs, ads, commercials, etc. about driving and texting are focused at teenagers. From the sound of it, you would think 99% of teens text and drive, and all other demographics are innocent. Well, all you have to do is lift up your head from your phone to realize there’s a bigger problem at hand.

According to research from InformationWeek, adults text while driving more than teens. The study shows that nearly half of all texting adults say they have sent or read a text message on their phone while driving, compared to about one-third of teenagers.

Neither group is excusable, and this doesn’t give teenagers a reason to point the finger and pretend to be innocent.

Information from the rest of the study can be found at InformationWeek‘s website. You can find it by clicking here.

However, I don’t know if we can expect teenagers to abide by the law if their parents aren’t following it themselves.

Parents, set the example. Your teen is watching. If you don’t want your teen to text behind the wheel, set the standard by putting the phone away while you drive. Whatever it is you need to send or read can wait. It might save your life, as well as the lives of many others.

For those of you are like me and only get your news from ESPN (I’m exaggerating…a bit), you might have missed this story. As of July 1, 2009, it is against the law to text while driving in the state of Tennessee. Here’s the full story from Knox News:

NASHVILLE – Rachel Nichol says reading or sending cell phone text messages while driving isn’t such a good idea – she’s had five fender benders, including one in a fast-food drive-thru.

“I was texting and I rear-ended someone each time,” said Nichol, a 20-year-old Nashville bartender. “You’re not looking at the road. You’re only using one hand to drive and it’s really dangerous.”

That’s why she supports a law prohibiting the behavior. It’s among new Tennessee laws that take effect today.

Violators of the texting prohibition would be fined $50, but the action would be considered a nonmoving traffic violation, meaning no points would be added to a person’s driving record.

It also exempts certain officials – such as officers of the state, campus police officers and emergency medical technicians – when performing their duties.

Opponents argued that law enforcement may not be able to tell whether drivers are texting or dialing and that texting is already covered under the state’s distracted driving law.

Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper agreed with that in an opinion he issued earlier this year when he said officers can currently cite a driver “whenever unsafe operation is caused by cell phone use, text messaging, applying cosmetics or any other activity that prevents the driver from operating the vehicle in a safe manner.”

But Maggi McLean Duncan, executive director of the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, said the group believes the new law is still necessary.

“They felt the proposed legislation which is now becoming law clarified it very succinctly not only for law enforcement, but for the judicial branch, as well as for citizens,” she said.

Safety Department spokesman Mike Browning said the new law “does create a challenge to law enforcement in distinguishing between texting and dialing on a mobile phone, since the statute does not require that all communications be performed with a hands-free device.”

However, he said the Tennessee Highway Patrol will enforce the law “to help promote public safety.”

“Motorists should be aware that texting while driving is a dangerous behavior that can result in an injury crash or even death to the driver or other motorists,” Browning said.

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You’re driving along in your car and your phone beeps. It happens to be a simple text message from one of your friends asking you a simple question. Now you have a decision. You can quickly text your friend back while you drive, or you can wait 20 minutes to reply to the message. What do you do?

According to statistics, most of us would probably text our friend back while driving. I’m just as guilty of it as anyone else. Unfortunately, I’m not in the minority. Statistics show that over 50% of people (specifically teens) admit to texting while driving.

While that may sound alarming, the news gets worse. Studies are now showing that texting while driving (or driving while texting in many cases) may be as distracting and dangerous as driving drunk. Just as a drunk driver is disoriented on the road, “texters” are extremely distracted, often looking down instead of keeping their eyes on the road. For those of us who have been in an accident, we all know it only takes a split second for something devastating to happen.

In many ways, it’s a selfish problem. We’ve all been behind someone swerving on the road who constantly changes speeds from 10 mph under the speed limit to 20 mpg over. When we finally catch up to them, we look over and see the person is typing away on a Blackberry, ignorant to his or her driving habits. When that happens, we get mad. We honk our horn. Maybe we yell something at him or her. And we definitely make sure to get out from that car. 

However, when our phone beeps, our concern for everyone else on the road (and in our car) goes out the window. For some reason, our plans with Stacey take precedent over safety.

Several states have taken action against this by developing “Hands Free” Laws. These laws prevent drivers from using cell phones in any capacity while driving, unless the driver uses a “hands free” receiver, such as Blue Tooth. This prohibits texting and holding a phone to the ear. 

The majority of states have yet to adopt this type of law. Without laws in place, texting while driving is completely legal, even for teenagers. 

I think it’s about time we start putting down our cell phones and demanding tighter driving laws.

Okay. I’m off my soapbox for today.