Texting and driving: From Salt Lake City to the West Coast, everyone does it, right? Wrong. Okay, but what about teenagers? Aren’t they more guilty of texting and driving than almost everybody? Wrong again — although teenagers definitely contribute to the problem.
Recent research indicates that older, wealthier men — typically those with a college degree — are the most likely to text and drive. Statistically, this demographic is 10 percent more likely to text and drive than women of the same age. This might correlate directly to the middle-aged man’s increased rates of risky driving and higher auto accident rates.
The Danger of the “Safety Net”
What’s propelling wealthier, middle-aged men to use their cell phones while driving? Social pressure is a major motivator of texting and driving for wealthier men. Interestingly, men who made more than $100,000 a year demonstrated the highest rates of texting and driving; researchers speculate that many men in this demographic find that the “safety net” of a higher income (and accessibility of a lawyer) influenced these men’s decision to text and drive. On the flip side, men who were in the lowest income bracket were the least likely to cause an auto accident while texting and driving.
Education Is the Solution
While most men in this demographic admitted that they believed that texting and driving was indeed dangerous — and likely to result in an auto accident — there was a small percentage of men who disagreed with this statement. Unfortunately, laws and legislation aren’t enough to prevent either the people of Salt Lake City or the Midwest from texting and driving; sometimes it takes the intervention of a lawyer to convince people to quit texting while driving.
At Robert J. DeBry & Associates, we believe that staying safe on the road should be a top priority — which is why we believe that safety starts with education. So no matter how long your commute is from Salt Lake City to Provo, avoid a costly call to a lawyer and simply put down the phone while driving.