Boardash: Teen text-driving fatality rate high

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Teen text-driving fatality rate high

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Tuesday November 17, 2009

Teen text-driving fatality rate high
Unhappy at school ups teen pregnancy risk
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Teen text-driving fatality rate high

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Twenty-five percent of U.S. adolescents admit texting while driving and say their parents do it, too, a phone survey released Monday showed.

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project findings come from focus groups and phone surveys, The Washington Post reported.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said distracted driving accounted for 5,870 deaths and approximately 515,000 injuries last year.

Drivers under age 20 last year had the highest distracted-driving fatality rate among all age groups, and drivers ages 20-29 came in second, NHTSA showed.

"Many teens understand the risks of texting behind the wheel but the desire to stay connected is so strong for teens and their parents that safety sometimes takes a back seat to staying in touch with friends and family," said Amanda Lenhart, the Pew report's co-author.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood emphasized the importance of parents paying attention to the road to provide a positive example for their children, but the Pew research discovered that not many do.

"The frequency of teens reporting parent cell phone use behind the wheel in our focus groups was striking, and suggested, in many cases, that texting while driving is a family affair," the Pew report said.

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Unhappy at school ups teen pregnancy risk

LONDON (UPI) -- Teens who grow up unhappy, poor, do not enjoy school and are despondent about their future are at increased risk of pregnancy, British researchers said.

Lead author Angela Harden of the University of East London said an evaluation of the Young People's Development Program concluded it had failed to reduce teenage pregnancies -- in fact, more women in the in the program got pregnant than in other programs.

Harden said the program failed because it targeted and, as a result, stigmatized "high-risk" young people and ultimately brought them together. The Young People's Development Program kept young people out of mainstream schools and worked with them in alternative educational settings.

The study authors evaluated 10 trials and five qualitative studies that focused on early childhood interventions or youth development programs. Teenage pregnancy rates were almost 40 percent lower in groups that participated in youth programs compared to those who did not.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, said policies aimed at improving how students feel about school combined with high-quality sex education and contraceptive services, are successful in lowering teenage pregnancy rates.

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