Despite dangers US teens text and drive

VIRTUALLY all teenagers agree that texting while driving is dangerous but nearly half admit they have done it anyway, according to a new US survey released on Monday.

Three-quarters of teenagers also said in an online poll that texting while driving was common among their friends, and reported that their parents text at nearly the same rate as they do while driving.

The poll was conducted by an independent research firm for AT&T. Consumer Reports said last week its survey showed that while eight in 10 said they knew the risks, some 29 per cent of drivers aged 16 to 21 had text messaged while driving in the past month.

With texting as teens' main mode of communication, at an average rate of more than 3,400 per month according to Nielsen research, the implications are alarming, said Andrea Brands, AT&T's director of consumer safety and education.

Some 97 per cent of the 1,200 teens surveyed said texting while driving was dangerous, with about two-thirds saying it was very dangerous. Yet 43 per cent said they had done so in the past three months.

Sixty-one per cent of teens said they glanced at their phone while driving in the past three months.

Some 41 per cent also said they had seen parents driving and texting in recent months. Seventy seven per cent agreed with the statement that adults text while driving "all the time".

The survey showed that 89 per cent of teens expect a reply to emails or text messages right away.

Thirty-seven of the 50 US states have banned using mobile device keyboards while driving and 10 states have outlawed the use of handheld phones. Reuters