I have a just turned 16 year old and am very concerned about phone usage while driving...


No Text Driver

 

16 and driving? my advice, drive alone,NOBODY else in the car for 6 months. you cannot get safe driving experience with ANY distraction. the worst is a cute girlfriend!!
turn the phone off,in the trunk,and enjoy the ride for a while as you slowly get the feel of driving. you can LIVE without it.
it does not come natural,or in a short time.

lots of nice kids get killed way too soon,,,

when you have passengers,phones in trunk.
ive driven for 55 yrs,used two way radio, with no problem. i had 2 accidents while on phone,its a different kind of communication than radio.
at 16 you dont need the phone in the car,trust the old timers!1

 

That is the worst! My little brother crashed my toyota truck back in the day because his girlfriend was in the passenger seat wearing a mini skirt. Luckily it was just a pole at the mall, so he was only going about 10-15mph, but could have been way worse. I'm a huge fan of blue-tooth components. NOT the little ear piece because people still find themselves fumbling around trying to get it when it falls off, or playing with it so they can hear better. But a blue-tooth stereo so they can be accessed still, but have no need what so ever to look at anything but the road, and both hands can be where they should be, on the wheel. The only problem with that is no body "talks" anymore, it's all text based. My niece just got licensed, and NO ONE gets more distracted than a teenage girls. With the facebook app, texting and twitter, her phone is in her hands 24/7, even sleeps with it just in case "something important comes up". In her car I installed a really secure iPhone holder, with charger, and blue-tooth sync so she can use the phone and her music. The catch is I mounted it in the glove box. The cable is too short to reach out (on purpose). All the controls for the iPod function are done through the radio so she doesn't need to ever touch her phone.

 

At any level of driving experience, it is a good idea to ignore the phone while driving. I do use the built in Bluetooth in my H3 to answer phone calls, I rarely make one while driving. Now with the smartphone, I receive emails and texts which are much more distracting to deal with. Bottom line, I will answer a call on Bluetooth, rarely make one and completly ignore email and texts while driving. I live in a college town and see plenty of distracted drivers, young and old. As a matter of fact there is a young coed serving a long prison sentence now for plowing into a group of pedestrians while texting. Food for thought.