WASHINGTON – Teens and young adults are not the only ones who are distracted while driving. A survey of parents and caregivers shows they also are driving distracted – and putting their children at risk.
More than 600 parents and caregivers were surveyed while their children, aged 1-12 years, were being treated for any reason at one of two Michigan emergency rooms. They were asked how often they had engaged in any of 10 distracting behaviors – including talking on the phone, texting/surfing the Internet, using a navigation system, or reaching for the child or a toy – while driving with their child over the past month. Parents also were asked whether they had been in a motor vehicle collision.
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Texting while driving is common in parents as well as teens.
Almost 90% of drivers reported engaging in at least one technology-related distraction while driving their child in the past month. Phone calls were most commonly reported; texts were least common. The median number of distractions checked off in the survey was four, reported Dr. Michelle L. Macy at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies.
Drivers who reported engaging in distracting behaviors were more likely to report having ever been in a crash, said Dr. Macy, clinical lecturer in the departments of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the University of Michigan and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Ann Arbor.
Parents who disclosed using the phone – hand held or hands free – while driving were 2.6 times as likely to have reportedly been involved in a motor vehicle crash.
Dr. Macy reported that she had no disclosures. The research was funded by a grant from the Michigan Center for Advancing Safe Transportation throughout the Lifespan (M-CASTL). Dr. Macy also received support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.