Cell phone usage amongst youth while driving has been linked to many egregious consequences. The National Safety Counsel (2010) announced during a press release that 28 percent of auto accidents among individuals 16 to 24 were attributable to cell phone usage while driving. Strayer and Johnston (2001) found that when conversing on either hands free or hand held phones while engaging in simulated driving, undergraduate participants 1) missed twice as many traffic signals and were slower to respond to signals 2) showed an increase in tracking error during a word generation task, and 3) showed no decline in driving ability in the control conditions, which consisted of listening to the radio or a book on tape. Based upon these results, they concluded that cell phone use created deficits in driving ability and that the source of theses deficits was the diversion of attention to a more cognitively engaging stimulus ( i.e. the phone conversation). It is because of these shifts in attentional demand required in dual-task processing that cell phone usage while driving can be particularly hazardous to youth. .
Cramer, Mayer, and Ryan (2007) stated in their study of cell use on a college campus that youth exhibit inferior dual-task processing and visual search capabilities, making it difficult to manage shifts in attentional demand. The study also noted that reported rates of cell use while driving amongst individuals aged 16 to 24 years has continued to rise over the past decade at staggering rates, and furthermore that college rates were even higher than general youth rates . .
Cell use while driving at night is an even more hazardous behavior that is frequently observed in youth drivers. Based upon several research findings, the National Institute for Highway Safety quotes night time driving as one of the major risk factors for youth auto accidents. In conjunction with this assertion, the Houston Chronicle (2010) released a news story in regards to youth cell use at night.
