Talking to friends, changing music, and sending texts--distractions are causing teens to lose focus behind the wheel. That's causing teens to get in more serious accidents, from spinning out of control to rear-ending other cars.
Thousands of teens had cameras mounted on their cars in exchange for an insurance discount through AAA. As the cameras rolled researchers found distractions played a role in 58 percent of moderate to severe teen crashes.
The top cause of accidents: having other passengers in the car and cell phones.
For driving instructors it's one of the biggest problem's they're trying to tackle.
"Mom does it, Dad does it, all my friends are doing it, so the evidence is stacking up to me to suggest that it's really not that bad," said Jason Redoutey, President, of Mr. R's Driving School.
Redoutey says the challenge is changing that attitude.
Using a phone is so distracting AAA researchers say nearly half of teens who caused rear-end crashes were travelling at full speed, meaning they didn't brake or even steer away.
"Until you really believe that it's bad, until you really believe that it gives you a less chance of not crashing then you're going to do it," Redoutey said.
State police hope driver safety programs through schools will help change that.
"We're working with a lot of teen drivers at different school through out the county on distractions," said Tpr. Daniel Bowman, Community Service Tpr. for the State Police Jackson Post. "It's helping them to get some good behaviors and good habits early on."
It's a program State Police will continue through April. But police say if a teen needs to take a call while they're driving, the best thing to do is get to a safe place and then pull over.
"I love seeing that, it's a lot easier than seeing somebody pulled off the side of the road when you show up at a crash," Bowman added.
MSP says they do look for distracted drivers, searching for telltale signs like head down, shoulders hunched and hands off the wheel.
Thousands of teens had cameras mounted on their cars in exchange for an insurance discount through AAA. As the cameras rolled researchers found distractions played a role in 58 percent of moderate to severe teen crashes.
The top cause of accidents: having other passengers in the car and cell phones.
For driving instructors it's one of the biggest problem's they're trying to tackle.
"Mom does it, Dad does it, all my friends are doing it, so the evidence is stacking up to me to suggest that it's really not that bad," said Jason Redoutey, President, of Mr. R's Driving School.
Redoutey says the challenge is changing that attitude.
Using a phone is so distracting AAA researchers say nearly half of teens who caused rear-end crashes were travelling at full speed, meaning they didn't brake or even steer away.
"Until you really believe that it's bad, until you really believe that it gives you a less chance of not crashing then you're going to do it," Redoutey said.
State police hope driver safety programs through schools will help change that.
"We're working with a lot of teen drivers at different school through out the county on distractions," said Tpr. Daniel Bowman, Community Service Tpr. for the State Police Jackson Post. "It's helping them to get some good behaviors and good habits early on."
It's a program State Police will continue through April. But police say if a teen needs to take a call while they're driving, the best thing to do is get to a safe place and then pull over.
"I love seeing that, it's a lot easier than seeing somebody pulled off the side of the road when you show up at a crash," Bowman added.
MSP says they do look for distracted drivers, searching for telltale signs like head down, shoulders hunched and hands off the wheel.
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