Distracted drivers are one of the biggest dangers to other road users. Teenager drivers are another one of the most significant hazards on the road. Combined, they are a potentially lethal, both for other road users and the teenagers themselves.
Part of it is down to a lack of experience, part of it is attributable to factors such as overconfidence or bravado, especially among teenage boys when there are other teenagers in the car.
A recent study by the American Academy of Pediatrics investigated whether the introduction of laws to address distracted driving helped reduce teenage driver deaths. They found it did: States, where a ban was in place, had fewer teenage drivers die than those where no ban was in place.
Washington State introduced distracted driving laws in 2017: the Driving Under the Influence of Electronics Act. It bans the handheld use of cellphones when driving, sitting at traffic lights or stuck in traffic. All you are allowed when moving is a single touch to start a device, but they recommend you do so before you start driving.
Despite these laws being in place, many people still ignore them, and distracted teenage drivers still cause too many Seattle collisions, some fatal, some not. If you suffer an accident caused by a teenage driver, or if your child was a passenger in a car accident where the teenage driver was not paying proper attention to the road, it is essential to explore the legal options available to you.