Why Isn’t There an App for This?

While the dangers of texting while driving have been well documented, another potentially dangerous distraction is quickly surpassing it. In a recent survey conducted by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Students Against Destructive Decisions, both in Boston, two out of three teen drivers queried admitted to using mobile phone apps while driving, compared to 27 percent who confessed to reading and sending text messages while behind the wheel The survey quizzed 5,150 teenagers at high schools across the United States and found that, while many have good intentions, their actual behavior is often another matter. For example, while 95 percent of teens felt that interacting with apps while driving was dangerous, 68 percent said they did. Specifically, though 64 percent of young drivers said that using music apps while on the road would be perilous, 46 percent acknowledged using them. The same goes for using navigation apps, which 41 percent of teens surveyed find dangerous to use while driving, yet 58 percent tend to do so anyway.