As Alan Ohnsman reports for Bloomberg, teens are a whopping 26 times more likely to engage in texting while driving than their mom and dad believe is the case.
This number comes from a joint study done by Toyota and the University of Michigan, which involved a survey of thousands of teen drivers.
Ohnsman quotes Toyota: “Teens read or send text messages once a trip 26 times more often than their parents think they do.”
This safety study was done in connection with the Toyota recalls (remember those sticking accelerators?), which prompted Toyota to conduct a larger safety initiative to get to the bottom of different causes of fatal accidents.
While teen texting while driving is surely a problem, we’re not sure how that ties into Toyota’s recall problems, though it’s admirable for Toyota to be putting money into auto safety. As Ohnsman reports, the leading cause of death for teenagers is car wrecks.
Certainly, a teen behind the wheel with a smartphone in hand doesn’t help matters.
Source: Teens Text More Than Parents Think: Study