Poll: Anti-Texting Support, Opinion of Teen Drivers Linked

Posted on August 10, 2011

A recent survey found that about 60 percent of individuals in favor of a federal law that sets minimum standards for state graduated driver licensing and that support of the law corresponds to unfavorable opinions of teenage driving ability, report news sources.

The survey of 1000 American adults, sponsored by an auto insurer, showed that teenage driving received the lowest opinion of any age group with 81 percent of respondents ranking teenage driving skills as average or poor. Respondents were also asked about provisions in the pending Safe Teen and Novice Driver Protection (STANDUP) Act, also know as Mariah’s Law (so named because of a teenager killed in a texting-related crash).

Seventy-six percent of respondents supported a minimum age of 16 for getting a learner’s permit. Seventy percent of survey participants were in favor of limiting unsupervised nighttime driving for underage motorists, and 65 percent of respondents said that the number passengers who are non-family members should be restricted when the driver is under 18. Eighty-one percent of the participants were in favor of prohibiting texting and cell phone by younger drivers.

The survey, conducted in July, has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent. Of the 1,000 respondents to the survey, 848 were drivers who held a license and drive at least occasionally.

As a Los Angeles wrongful death attorney, I urge all motorists, regardless of age, never to text while driving.

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