Half of teen drivers on phone talking to a parent

New research has found that over half of all teenagers who talked on the phone while driving were talking to a parent. Fewer than half were talking to a friend.

Talking on a phone or texting is regarded as distracted driving, but up to now it was not known that the main cause of distraction for young drivers is the call from home.

Using a mobile phone while driving makes you four times more likely to crash and driver distraction is now reckoned to play a part in up to 30% of all road collisions.

More than half of 408 teenage drivers who took part in a clinical study reported being on the phone with their parents. The findings were presented to the American Psychological Association’s annual convention in Washington.

“Teens told us parents really expected to keep track of them, and they are expected to answer the phone if the parent calls.

“In some cases, the parent might continue to call until the teen answers,” said psychologist Noelle LaVoie, whose research company conducts corporate and government studies.

The research included interviews with drivers from 31 states, aged 15 to18, who have learner permits or driving licences.

It sought to find out why they talk or text while driving. It found that 53% of teenagers who talked on the phone while behind the wheel talked to a parent and 46% talked to a friend. Text messages were more likely to go to a friend than to a parent.

“One of the things teens talked about is the fact that parents used their cell phone while driving,” Ms LaVoie said, adding: “It was just very surprising to see how directly parents are involved.”

“What we do know for sure is if parents would not call their teens while they’re driving, it would reduce teen distracted driving.”

In a separate distracted driving study presented to the National Psychological Association annual convention, researchers at colleges in Missouri and Virginia asked college students about their driving distractions.

A total of 89% made mobile phone calls while driving and 79% texted while behind the wheel, either sending or receiving.

“Younger drivers seemed overconfident in their ability to multi-task,” co-author Keli Braitman, an assistant professor of psychology at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri said.

Yesterday, Noel Gibbons, an Irish road safety officer, urged parents to try to ensure that they only call their children when they are not behind the wheel.

“The findings from this study are US figures, but we have no reason to believe that they would be any different here.

“It’s human nature for a parent for a parent to want to keep in touch with their children, but they should be careful not to do so while they are driving,” he said.

From 2008 to 2009, the number of penalty points issued for driving while using a mobile phone increased by 70% — from 44,624 to 75,040.

App that you cannot ignore

Since time began children have found inventive ways to ignore their parents as they in turn tried to find new ways get their attention.

The latest development in this long-running circle of parent-child conflict is Ignore No More, an Android app that allows parents to lock their children’s phones from afar with a password of the parent’s choosing.

After the parent does so, the only way that the child will be able to unlock the phone is to call the parent and ask for the password.

The app was created by Sharon Standifird, a mother who was fed up with being digitally brushed off by her teens. After coming up with the idea, she researched how to code an app and then spent months working with developers to bring it to reality.

Her son, Bradley, is only half-proud of his mother. “I thought it was a good idea,” he told CBS. “But for other people, not me.”

Here’s how it works:

-Download the app and create an account.

The app will ask for basic information. Don’t share the login information with teenagers, as they will swiftly find a way to disable the app.

-Find the children’s phones and download Ignore No More again.

Launch it and log in with the same information used to create the original account.

A screen that asks if the user is setting it up for a parent or a child will appear. The child option should be selected.