Driven to distraction

There has been a historic surge in US traffic fatalities over the last four years as more drivers use their phones to respond to texts or scroll through Instagram feeds. Even parents can’t keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road, new research shows.

Half of all parents use their phones while driving with young children in the car, according to a study released last week by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. About a third of parents reported reading text messages, one in four sent text messages and one in seven used social media over the last three months while driving children between the ages of four and 10 in a moving vehicle.

The study was conducted in 2017 from a national sample of 760 parents and caregivers of children aged four to 10.

It’s not a surprise, given that American adults use smartphones “almost constantly” throughout the day. Seventy-seven percent now own a smartphone, according to the Pew Research Center.

“Engaging with a smartphone inherently takes our attention away from the roadway,” said Catherine McDonald, a senior fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who co-authored the study. “As technology rapidly changes and accelerates, we need to intervene.”

Parents who reported using their phone while driving young children in a moving vehicle were more likely to have demonstrated other risky behaviours, including driving under the influence, not using a seat belt and not using proper child-restraint systems, according to the study.

“Deterring cellphone use while driving is going to take a multi-pronged approach,” McDonald said, pointing to increased law enforcement, i nsurance penalties and health-education counselling as possible solutions. But thus far, insurance companies and police departments have been fairly lenient in terms of identifying and punishing distracted drivers. Laws banning the use of hand-held phones have also had little effect.

Beyond the immediate consequences, McDonald said she’s worried that parents who text and drive may encourage their children to model that behaviour when they eventually take the wheel.

“We want to help parents understand the risk associated with these behaviours,” McDonald said. “Parents want to keep children safe, but this behaviour places their children at crash risk.”