Great news, teens! Next time an adult tells you not to text while driving, call them a dangerous hypocrite. For authority, tell them about the recent Pew Internet & American Life Project, which found that being in a car could be much more dangerous than you thought.

Here are just a few of the survey’s disturbing findings:

• 47% of adults who text do so while behind the wheel; last year, 34% of teens said they texted while driving.
• 75% of adults with cellphones talk while driving; last year, 52% of teens said they talked on the phone while driving.
• 44% of adults say they’ve been in a car where someone on a phone created a dangerous situation.
• 17% of adults with cellphones report walking into things or people while using their phone.

And those are just the self-reported findings. Pew thinks that across the entire population, 27% of adults and 26% of teens text and drive, while 61% of adults and 43% of teens yap and drive. Who knows how many people have really walked into things or people while using their phone.

Twenty eight states have banned texting while driving, but that doesn’t appear to have done anything. The good news? Highway deaths have fallen recently, but that’s because the recession has kept the jobless masses from commuting to work.

Teens aren’t the worst texting-while-driving culprits, study finds [AP]
Pew: Half of cell users text and drive [The Red Tape Chronicles]

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