Parents Are Often Distracted While Driving, Research At Boston Hospital Finds

BOSTON (CBS) -- It is estimated that nine people are killed and more than 1,000 are injured every day by a distracted driver. A new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital finds while younger parents are more likely to drive while distracted than older parents, it is common among parents of all ages.

Researchers found that half of parents of all ages reported writing text messages while driving in the past month and two-thirds reported reading texts while driving. The more people texted, the more likely they were to report having been in a car crash.

Dr. Regan Bergmark is a surgeon at the Brigham the study's lead author. "When you look at this research, people know it's unsafe but they've gotten away with it, and so people do it," said Dr. Bergmark. "And we haven't found a way to address that."

Dr. Bergmark said this is a problem that technology created and one that technology will need to fix.

While there are apps and features on your smartphone that can limit or block texts while you're behind the wheel, they're not perfect, but they're a start.