PA Ranked 29th For Texting While Driving Rates Among Teens

Texting while driving has been a major issue in the United States since the convenient messaging became widely available. The immediacy and brevity of text messages makes them an important communication tool but also can create dangerous roads as some drivers text while operating vehicles.

And a new study from the Journal of Adolescent Health has examined texting while driving rates among teens in 35 states.

According to the study's findings, Pennsylvania ranks 29th among states with high texting while driving rates among teens.

The study shows 35 percent of teen drivers reported texting or emailing while driving at least one day during the 30 days before the survey.

Overall, the study found 38 percent of teens surveyed reported texting while driving on at least one day, 22 percent reported texting while driving one to nine days, and 16 percent said they texted while at the wheel 10 to 30 days.

South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska has the top five highest rates of teens texting while driving, with 64 percent; 58 percent; 55 percent; 52 percent; and 50 percent of surveyed teens admitting to texting while driving.

Maryland had the lowest rate of states included in the study with 26 percent.

The study used data from 35 states that administered the 2015 state Youth Risk Behavior Survey to calculate the ranks.

See the full results of the study here.

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