ATLANTA — More than half of high school seniors admit they text or e-mail while driving — the first federal statistics on how common the dangerous habit is in teens.
An anonymous national survey conducted last year found that 58 percent of high school seniors said they had texted or e-mailed while driving during the previous month. About 43 percent of high school juniors acknowledged they did the same thing.
“I’m not surprised. I’m not surprised at all,” said Vicki Rimasse, a New Jersey woman whose son caused a fender-bender earlier this year after texting in traffic. She made him take a safe-driving class after the mishap.
“I felt like an idiot,” said her 18-year-old son, Dylan Young.
“It caused me to be a lot more cautious,” said the high school senior, although he conceded he still texts behind the wheel.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the survey results Thursday. Some earlier studies had suggested teen texting while driving was common, though perhaps not quite so high.
Still, the numbers aren’t really surprising, said Amanda Lenhart, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center in Washington. She studies how teens use technology.
A typical teen sends and receives about 100 text messages a day, and it’s the most common way many kids communicate with their peers.
The CDC survey didn’t ask whether high school students’ texting was done while the vehicle was moving or stopped.
