CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It’s an epidemic.
Teen Vogue features editor Jessica Duncan said distracted driving among teenagers is a massive problem that cannot be ignored.
“It’s happening a lot more than parents, probably, are willing to think,” Duncan told MetroNews.
To address the issue, Teen Vogue is partnering with Toyota for an awareness campaign called “Arrive In Style,” which will focus on smart driving tips for parents and their teens.
“Our goal is to make distracted driving just as taboo as drunk driving is,” Duncan said.
More than 60 percent of the teenaged girls Teen Vogue recently questioned said they regularly use their cell phones while driving. Teens reported reading or sending text messages at least once a trip 26 times more often than their parents think they do.
But Dr. Tina Sayer, principal engineer at Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center, said distractions do not come from the phone alone.
“It is technology that we bring into the vehicle. It is vehicle electronics that are already there. But it’s also just some very basic things of drinking, eating a taco, even changing vehicle controls, all those things are potential distractions,” Sayer said.
She encouraged parents to sign a mutual safe driving agreement with their teens about expectations, ride in the vehicle with their teen drivers often and be the drivers they want their teens to be.
Nationally, AAA reported vehicle crashes are still the leading cause of death among U.S. teens and the summer is the deadliest time of year for those drivers.
In 2010 in West Virginia, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data shows 17 teen drivers were involved in a crash that had at least one death.
The June-July issue of Teen Vogue will focus on the dangers of texting and driving. For more go to www.teenvogue.com/arriveinstyle