Middle-Aged Motorists Much Worse at Texting While Driving

Middle-aged drivers have problems with multitasking, and therefore, may find it more difficult to text while driving. That increases their risk of an accident if they are using a cell phone at the wheel. Texting while driving is a dangerous practice that motorists must avoid at all costs. Distracted driving contributes to thousands of accidents every year, and kills an average of 3,000 people every year. Those numbers are steadily increasing, and distracted driving has rightly been described as the “new drunk driving.” Younger drivers are much more likely to text while driving. Younger and teen drivers are more likely to be addicted to their smartphones, and may be much more likely to use these phones while driving, compared to older drivers. However, younger drivers in the study were found to be much less likely to make the kind of driving errors that contribute to accidents, compared to older drivers. The researchers tested a number of drivers between the age of 18 and 59, and divided them into 4 categories. They found that in the 18-to-24 group, approximately 25% of the motorists made a lane excursion, or moved out of their lane and into oncoming traffic. However, among the 45- to- 59 age group, as many as hundred percent of the drivers made these dangerous lane excursions. San José car accident lawyers warn that this doesn’t mean that teen drivers can safely text while driving. It only means that texting may be much more dangerous for older drivers, who must avoid texting at the wheel. The good news is that texting while driving, is much less popular among older drivers. The risk of texting while driving actually decreases with an increase in the person’s age, and senior drivers above the age of 65 are least likely to text at the wheel.