Fear of death may curb youthful texting while driving, study shows
Thursday, February 27, 2014 - 09:02
in Health & Medicine
While drivers tend to believe it is dangerous to text and drive, many say they can still do it safely. Now researchers say drivers can be discouraged from the practice with public service announcements that evoke their fear of death in graphic terms. The study comes as distracted driving is implicated in thousands of fatalities and hundreds of thousands of injuries each year. The researchers cite a National Safety Council estimate that distracted cell phone use accounts for more than one-fourth of all traffic accidents, with as many as 200,000 stemming specifically from texting while driving.