Central Coast teens learn the dangers of distracted driving

It’s the number one killer of teens and Tuesday, California Highway Patrol is sending out an important message about distracted driving.

The CHP helped host a workshop for teen drivers stressing the importance of driving without any distractions.

“It’s the number one cause of crashes amongst teen drivers,” said Officer Trista Drake with the CHP.

That’s why the CHP along with the non-profit Impact Teen Drivers spoke with Central Coast teens.

Jacob Gonzalez with the non-profit says millennials understand the dangers of driving drunk or high, but driving distracted, is more complicated.

“Unfortunately what they still don’t understand is grabbing the cell phone and looking down it actually as dangerous as driving on .08 blood alcohol level,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez shared real life stories of California teens who’ve died because of distracted driving.

“We drive everyday thinking that nothing’s ever going to happen but unfortunately because of one poor choice, you can do a million things right one day, and just that one little mistake can take the life of another or themselves,” Gonzalez said.

Officer Trista Drake says many teenage drivers drive distracted because their parents do.

“Your teen is watching you, your child is watching you from the time they turn around in their car seat,” Drake said, “They’re watching all the behaviors that you do so it’s very important for parents to mimic the good behavior to be a good driver, to not be distracted on their cell phones if they expect their teen driver to do the same.”

And Officer Drake says the law on cell phones is pretty simple.

“It has to be completely hands-free so out of your hands and not being operated in the car at all.”

Impact Teen Drivers says of the 4,000 deadly crashes each year, 75 percent are due to reckless and distracted driving.

To find out more go to whatslethal.com