High-Risk Auto Insurance Group Has High Rate of Texting While Driving

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA, November 30, 2010 (Press-News.org) Despite auto insurance companies' spending much time and funds on spreading awareness of the dangers of texting while driving and despite many states' enacting bans on the practice, a significant proportion of the driving public still sends and receives messages from behind the wheel. According to recently released results from an insurance research organization survey, about a fifth of respondents reported that they had texted while driving at least once during the last month.

The survey, conducted by the Insurance Research Council (IRC), asked more than 1,400 motorists about their phone use during the 30 days preceding the study.

A high risk car insurance group that reported a relatively high percentage of texting while driving during that period was drivers aged 16 to 24; nearly a third of respondents in this age group reported having texted while driving. What was surprising, though, was that these younger drivers actually had a lower rate of texting than those aged 25 to 39. While most insurers and experts hold the belief that motorists belonging to this older age group are more responsible than their younger counterparts, 41 percent of them reported that they had texted while driving; only thirty-one percent of drivers aged 16 to 24 said they had done so.

The dangers of sending and receiving messages while in the driver's seat have been reported by various government and industry research groups. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motorists using hand-held devices "are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves."

Source: http://www.distracteddriving.gov/stats-and-facts/index.html

In response to the mounting body of research, 38 states and Washington, D.C., have passed at least some form of texting-while-driving restrictions.

The IRC's announcement of the results did not indicate whether or how many respondents were in states that have bans on mobile-phone use while driving. The definition of "texting" used in the study was using a cell phone or smart phone to read, send or post a text message, instant message or comment.

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