Most College Students Admit To Texting While Driving

Stop Doing This While You Drive

The vast majority of college students engage in something that's both dangerous and typically illegal.

Four out of five students admit to sending or receiving text messages while driving, according to a new study by Garold Lantz and Sandra Loeb at King's College in Pennsylvania.

Student drivers also tend to consider themselves "more proficient drivers than others and so less likely to endanger themselves or others" when they text while driving.

"There seems to be a mentality that use of electronic devices is dangerous for everyone but 'me'," Lantz and Loeb said in a news release.

The study will be published in an upcoming edition of International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management.

Previous research from the University of California-San Diego Medical Center in 2012 that showed half of college students admit to sending text messages while driving on the freeway.

Either sending or receiving a text diverts a driver's eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, according to research funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. A test from Car & Driver Magazine showed it took drivers far longer to react and hit the brakes when sending a text compared to being legally drunk.

A majority of the country -- 39 states and Washington, D.C. -- currently ban texting while driving.

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