Countless stories reflect on the grim consequences of distracted driving, particularly when drivers try to text while driving. Tragedies stemming from such actions led the National Transportation Safety Board to call for state-wide bans on all handheld device usage by drivers.

Unfortunately, few have readily made the connection between use of cell phones and distracted driving. In fact, teenagers are texting more every month than any other group, but factor of ten. The average teen sends thousands of text messages every month to their friends and family. If they are old enough to drive you can bet that a fair number of those texts were sent from behind the wheel as they cruised down the road, singing along to the radio and not paying nearly enough attention to the hazards of driving.

In New York statistics show that while teenagers make up only 6 percent of all licensed drivers they are involved in nearly 20 percent of all fatal accidents. With millions of drivers on the road on any given day, defensive driving NY requires you have be constantly aware of what is going on around you at all times. You cannot take eyes off the road for a second, much less long enough send “LMAO! just saw mark’s hat!” on your cell phone.

A defensive driving course New York can get points off your license and even help you keep insurance premiums low (insurance companies in New York offer a 10 percent discount to drivers who successfully complete a defensive driving course) but it can’t heal broken bones or bring your teenager back to life if they’ve been killed in a crash because they were texting and driving.

The best idea is to teach your teens the importance of NOT using their cell phone in the car at all; tell them to put it in the trunk so they aren’t even tempted to answer it if it rings or beeps. In most cases teens are not known for being overly bright, but if you keep repeating the message they might just listen to you. Eventually.

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