Teen texting and driving remains rampant despite stiff fines, campaigns

We all know texting while driving is bad, or at least we're supposed to know.

But results of a survey released this week by Toronto's Centre for Addition and Mental Health finds the message is falling on deaf ears among teenage drivers.

The survey conducted last year of Ontario students in Grades 10 through 12 found about 36 per cent admitted to texting or emailing someone while driving at least once in the last year. The figure climbed to almost one in two (45.9 per cent) for Grade 12 students.

Male drivers (34.9 per cent) were slightly less likely to report texting while driving than female (37.1).

It's the first time the question was included in the wide-ranging annual survey on student health and well-being. The results surprised co-investigator Dr. Hayley Hamilton because Ontario has had a tough distracted-driving law for the last five years, with fines up to $280.

"I would have thought the message would have gotten through, especially among young people who had just learned how to drive, that they would know better," Hamilton told Yahoo Canada News in an interview.

“On the one hand it is surprising, but on the other hand maybe not within the context of people’s lives today, the constantly being linked in.”

[ Related: Ontario hiking fine for drivers using electronic devices as problem grows ]

It appears that despite coming of age amid the backlash against talking and/or texting while driving, which now is equated with drunk driving in terms of risk, the national crackdown and public-awareness campaigns seem to have had a disappointing impact with teens.

Robert Tremblay, the Insurance Bureau of Canada's road-safety research director, said a survey last year by the Canadian Council of Motor Transportation Administrators found the under-25 age group spends up to five hours a day on social media and communication activities.

“Of course they’re not going to stop because they’re driving," he said.

The council did an observational survey in 2012, peering into more than 70,000 vehicles at stop signs and traffic lights across Canada. The study found 4.6 per cent of drivers on average were observed using communications devices, either talking or texting, despite all provinces now forbidding the practice.

The results varied by province, sex and age group. The highest, at 7.1 per cent, was among drivers who appeared under age 25, dropping to 5.5 per cent in the 25-49 age bracket and 2.4 per cent for those aged 50 and above, the survey found.

“For the young demographics it's absolutely not surprising in the sense that this type of technology has been part of their lives for a long time," said Tremblay.

Older drivers perhaps may be more conscious of the risk but are also less comfortable with using the technology while in motion and feel less need to be connected constantly, he said. By contrast, the young tend to feel more invincible and believe they're more skilled at multitasking behind the wheel.

Most research tends to point the finger at younger drivers' careless phone use but they're by no means alone.

A survey last year by the Automobile Association of America Foundation for Traffic Safety revealed a higher percentage of adults admitted using their phone while driving – 82 per cent aged 25 to 39 and 72 per cent aged 19-24 and 40-59 – compared with 58 per cent of teens. And only seven per cent of teen drivers admitted to texting, according to a report by CBS News.

The Insurance Corp. of British Columbia, which handles licensing and auto insurance in the province, said its own research in 2012 found there was little difference between drivers 25 or under and those aged 26 to 50 when it came to using electronic devices while driving.

But in the last five years, 34 per cent of young drivers involved in crashes resulting in injuries or death were distracted, spokesman Adam Grossman said. It suggests their inexperience behind the wheel more than makes up for their supposed prowess with their phone.

[ Related: RCMP use novel approach to inform drivers of phone distraction danger in cars ]

In B.C., distracted driving is responsible for a quarter of all crash fatalities, causing 91 deaths in an average year, closely trailing impaired driving at 95 fatalities. Speed-related accidents remain the number one factor, at 115 deaths a year.

The Ontario stats on teen texting seem paradoxical, given the level of awareness about the risk. A Canadian Automobile Association survey last year found 92 per cent of those aged 18-34 perceived driver text messaging as a road-safety threat, a percentage that rises with age.

Hamilton said perhaps the reflexive need among young people to stay connected outweighs their recognition that doing it while driving is dangerous.

“It pings and they must look, and then they must respond," the scientist said. "Chances are that may be a factor in these findings.”

That doesn't mean we should stop trying to persuade them to do otherwise, she said, even though it seems the current campaigns are being ignored.

It should perhaps be talked about in the same way as other public health issues, such as impaired driving, by making it socially unacceptable.

“There’s a stigma with respect to that and there were lots of messaging with respect to drinking and driving," said Hamilton.

For instance, the peer-to-peer approach, with young drivers and drunk-driving victims talking to other teens, has helped increase the social pressure not to drink and drive, she noted.

"Those are options to be tried," she said.

Tremblay agreed stiff fines seem no deterrent to young people who live in the here and now.

“This is the issue of social acceptability of some types of behaviour," he said. "Those same teenagers would not even think about drinking and driving. That message has worked very well and it’s reached a level of social acceptance, which is great.”