Distracted driving on the rise
By Jasen Lee, Deseret News
Distracted driving is on the rise as texting and social media usage are increasing among teenage drivers, according to AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Nationally, during the past five years more than 5,000 people have been killed in crashes involving teen drivers during the summer months. And nearly 60 percent of teen crashes involve distractions behind the wheel, the foundation said in a release.
According to the foundation, the report is part of the most comprehensive eight-year research project ever conducted into crash videos of teen drivers. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Iowa, the AAA Foundation analyzed the moments leading up to a crash in more than 2,200 videos captured from in-car dash cameras. The latest report compared new crash videos with those captured from 2007-12 and found consistent trends in the top three distractions for teens when behind the wheel in the moments leading up to a crash.