Teen Driving

About Teen Driving, Texting Video

A short, but violent, video about the dangers of teen driving and texting has become a top viral video, and has kept both the media and social network sites chattering, since it was first posted on YouTube in early September.
The film, which includes a graphic, but realistic auto crash reenactment, was contracted by a British police department and was originally 30 minutes long. It was produced last year. The movie was shown to high school students as a public service announcement. And, according to its producer, it was meant to shock and elicit a reaction.

As it stands now on the Internet, the teen driving video is edited to four minutes long. But some would say it’s long enough to make a teen driver or a worried parent ill.

A girl, driving two friends, is texting and sways off the road, eventually involving three autos in the chain reaction accident. There is bloodshed, the sounds of crushing bones, and suffice it to say an unhappy ending for the teen. Within minutes, the mood of the teen driving goes from giggles to stunned silence as she is airlifted from the scene.

Peter Watkins-Hughes, the writer and director of the video, is not backing down from the controversy. Young people, he said, because of television and video games, are desensitized in many cases to the sight of blood and death. It will take a hard hit, in a place where they are vulnerable, to make teen driving and texting an important topic of daily discussion.

Watkins-Hughes seems to be getting his intended reaction. A sampling of on-line comments:

·         Some viewers are commenting that the clip is so graphic it’s laughable.  Then again, a lot of teen driving videos are violent, and teens don’t want to let on that an adult has hurt or deceived them.

• Some bloggers are convinced that the whole thing is real and the individuals really died. It looks real enough, except for the multiple camera angles, expert sound quality and slow motion segments.
• Many are complaining that the teen driving and texting habit is foolish. Some teen drivers are promising never to text while teen driving again and appealing to others to make the same pledge.

Car crashes are the number one cause of death in youth. Any accident that you see, there’s close to a two-thirds chance there was a teen driving.  Controlled road tests of teen driving and texting showed that, the average text, takes 4.7 seconds. When the teen driving is taking his eyes off the road for 4.7 seconds at 55 mph, that’s the length of a football field.

Of course, not all texting accidents are the result of teen driving. Adults do it too.

There is a massive campaign growing on the federal level, to outlaw driving and texting. It’s a matter that the individual states must decide. Several states have already passed laws to the effect. It probably won’t be long before driving-and-texting laws will be in effect across the nation.

Perhaps then the teen driving statistics will begin to change.

I was visiting my sister in Pensacola the other day, because her 18-year-old son was on a break from college. Jesse is my godchild and my pride and joy. And Jesse – at least by my personal standards – is a teen driving novice.

She had invited the two of us to stay for a grand Italian dinner of lasagna and, let me tell you, I was looking forward to it. While Jesse spent the afternoon as any college boy would – teen driving to visit old friends – my sister and I shopped for ingredients, spent an hour or two with her card club, then returned to her home to prepare for the feast.

About 4 p.m. Jesse called to check in and – oddly – this teen driving out there on the roads for only an hour or so, asked what was for dinner. I looked at his Mom puzzled, and she quickly responded with that nimble smile: “It’s that damn ADHD.”

With all the publicity today focused on the dangers of teen driving, including teen drinking, teen drugs, teen texting; where’s all the talk about the dangers of teen driving and ADHD?

I knew my nephew’s Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was a problem in grade school, when daily homework lessons were a test of patience. But now I wondered: how is this teen driving with this condition?

Learning how to drive is an important lesson in teen safety. Teen driving in general is a challenge, what with the horrendous distractions of cell phones and text messages these days. We worry about teen drugs, teen drinking, teen speeding. We can lecture and avoid these, but what about when you have a teen driving under circumstances he cannot control? In essence, a disability, a handicap: ADHD, combined with teen driving, can be a deadly combination.

Road accidents are the top cause of death of young people, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and distractions are the cause of more than half of teen driving crashes. A teen driving without focus is a date with disaster. A teen driving with ADHD just can’t help himself.

ADHD is the result of an over stimulated brain. Suffers have described the feeling as though their minds are going all over the place, like a strobe light at some psychedelic disco. Would you want a teen driving under those conditions behind you on the highway at 70 mph?

It may be a fault, but I am not one to keep my feelings to myself. I told my sister we should get Jesse some guidance and education about teen driving distractions. I looked up ADHD and teen driving on the Internet and found some very informative articles. It seems we can improve the odds of disaster with teen driving and ADHD.

ADHD is a lifetime disorder, almost sure to show its symptoms beyond the teen driving years. Parents: Read below for some helpful tips about teen driving with ADHD.  Seek a support group. You can get help at CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) at www.chadd.org.

GPS Tracking via Cell Phone, Self-Contained GPS Unit, or Bumper Sticker?

Count all the drivers involved in fatal automobile crashes in 2007, and 13 percent of them will have been young people, age 15-20. In that same year, teen drivers accounted for 15 ercent of all motorists involved in police-reported crashes. These are teen driving statistics that should frighten any parent into action.

There are three primary devices available on the market today that parents are using in their crusade to raise safer teen drivers. All three are meant to accomplish the same things: make their children accountable for their teen driving decisions, realize the dangers of unsafe driving and show that they can responsibly operate a powerful vehicle with precious cargo. (more…)