Most parents admit their teen children engage in distracted driving: survey

The Royal Bank of Canada recently announced the results of a poll of parents and teenagers, noting that 79% of parents responding said their teenaged children engage in some form of distracted driving.

One in four of the parents said their teens were distracted by radio or music, 21% said those distractions were having friend in the car and 14% said their teens were distracted by talking to passengers.

“Five per cent admit their teen is distracted by texting and two per cent say their children are making phone calls while driving,” RBC Insurance stated in a press release.

The result of the poll, conducted Aug. 17 to 28 by Ipsos Reid, indicate “formal driving lessons are becoming less prevalent,” RBC Insurance stated, with 35% of parents saying they learned from an instructor only, while 16% of the teenaged respondents said they learned from an instructor only.

One in five of the adult respondents said the most common fault of their childrens’ driving was not knowing their route, while 15% said being distracted was the most common fault. Aggressive driving was cited by 12% of parents, another 12% cited speeding. Not knowing the rules and driving too slowly were the most common faults of their teen drivers cited by 9% and 8% of adult respondents respectively.

Of the teenaged respondents, 15% said they had at least one accident but 92% said they had not had any speeding tickets.

The teens were also asked about their parents’ driving behaviour, with 47% rating their fathers as good drivers but only 29% rating their mothers as good drivers. However, 38% of the teens said the most common fault of their father’s driving was either speeding or driving too aggressively, while only 6% said their mother’s most common fault was aggressive driving and 11% said their mother’s most common fault was speeding.

The poll was conducted using online interviews of 1,001 Canadian parents of teenagers and 1,000 teenagers.