Fewer teens are texting while driving, finds study

BURNABY (NEWS 1130) -For years, experts have been telling us the only way to get drivers to drop the phone while they are behind the wheel is to make texting and driving as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving.

Well, the message may finally be sinking in because fewer teens are doing it. That is the finding of a joint study out of Simon Fraser University and the University of Regina, which suggests the number of teenagers who admit to texting while behind the wheel fell from 27 per cent in 2012 to just six per cent in 2014.

One of the most common reasons given was the perceived danger of doing it, but professional driving instructor Steve Wallace suggests the penalties for young drivers might also be a factor.

“They will lose their license. The repercussions are so much more dramatic than for the average driver,” he tells NEWS 1130.

Other teen drivers surveyed say it was seeing close calls or crashes by other texting drivers that changed their ways.

Lead researcher Sean Tucker, an associate professor at the University of Regina, says the habit could soon have the same kind of social stigma attached to it as impaired driving.

Karen Bowman with the anti-distracted driving group Drop It and Drive believes attitudes are already shifting.

“It’s a huge issue. People are being injured and killed because of it and I think that in itself is taking society to that place where there is a stigma attached to it. It’s not something you can brag about,” she says.  “The people who are posting their Periscope videos while they are driving are being lambasted in social media and they are being called out for their behaviour. There’s definitely a trend starting to happen in the direction we are hoping for.”

While Ontario has raised fines for distracted driving to as much as $1,000, BC is still considering the idea. The current fine is $167 and three penalty points.

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