Driver’s ed is getting a tune-up as a new generation buckles up.
More than seatbelts, speeding and sobriety, teaching kids who own cellphones to be safe behind the wheel means talking about the dangers of distraction, particularly texting.
Driving distracted, including texting or talking on the phone, is equivalent to getting behind the wheel after four beers, according to one American study. And no one is more closely tethered to their phone than a teenager.
The problem is so bad it has inspired phone apps. They monitor speed, and block texting capability when driving.
Early Wednesday, students from three Canadian high schools, in Toronto, Montreal and Moncton, were stationed at the corners of busy intersections surveying driver behaviours. Over the span of an hour, they witnessed 41 people texting while driving (half of them in Toronto) and 100 more talking on their phone or using an electronic device such as an iPod or GPS.
The event, known as Blow the Whistle, was organized by Allstate, an insurance company that has joined the chorus of educators, police officers and auto industry insiders who are incorporating safe-gadget practices into the way young people are taught to drive.
They aren’t the only ones worried. Texting recently overtook impaired driving as the No. 1 safety concern among drivers, according to a survey conducted by the Canadian Automobile Association.
“We think the problem and the anxiety levels are only going to go up, because the generation that are learning to drive today were born with a smart phone in their hand,” said Ian Jack, a spokesman for the association.
And nearly every one of them is texting: Ninety-five per cent of Canadians between the ages of 14 and 17 send or receive text messages, according to a survey conducted by Quorus Consulting Group earlier this year.
Some things about driver’s ed never change, and after their survey, in a basement library at Toronto’s Northern Secondary School, Constable Keith Ingram showed students a series of videos involving shattered glass, spattered blood and screeching tires.
Usually his presentations focus equally on speeding, seatbelts and sobriety. Getting to devote a full hour to distractions in front of a captive crowd of cellphone-toting teens was cathartic for the veteran cop.
“Cellphones are my pet peeve because they’re so dangerous,” he said. As a member of Toronto Police Service’s Traffic Services he’s seen firsthand the carnage that can result. “A phone call’s not worth it.”
It’s not just new drivers who need a lesson.
In Montreal, students and teachers navigated a distracted driving obstacle course at the Olympic Park. Rosemount High School’s principal, Demetra Droutsas, knocked over pylons, drove through lights and bungled an attempt at text messaging, much to the amusement of her students, some of whom came along for the ride.
“They’re still teasing me,” she said. “I just typed in letters. They were all consonants, I don’t think there were any vowels.”
When she’s driving between the school and the her school district’s headquarters, Mr. Droutsas, who has two young children, sometimes used to take a call on her hands-free set.
No longer.
“My kids have seen mommy answer the phone while she’s driving, so how could I expect them not to do the same?” she said. “After this I’ll be pulling over. I’ll do my best to not pick up that phone.”
With research from Celia Donnelly
