Officials Renew Warnings About Teens & Distracted Driving

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- It's a time on the roadways that's so deadly, it's been called the 100 deadliest days. This is the period that starts on Memorial Day when more young drivers are on the roads and are more likely to be involved in a deadly wreck.

Ava-joye Burnett has more on the startling numbers that have officials ringing the alarm about distracted driving.

AAA says 60% of teen crashes happen when they lose focus---and the number of wrecks goes up even more in the summer.

Seeing a video of distracted driving shows just how quickly things can go wrong. No one in the videos was seriously hurt but they're further proof distracted driving can change a life in a second.

"I had to relearn how to read, write, walk, talk---everything," said Liz Marks.

In 2012, Marks' car slammed into a tow truck. She was just checking a text from her mom.

"Everyone's like, `Oh, only a couple seconds while driving; that's not going to be a bad thing' but every five seconds, you travel a football field. Think about that," Marks said.

A NHTSA report revealed that in one year, more than 1,600 young drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 died in wrecks. Nineteen of them were in Maryland. And the total number of people killed in crashes involving this same age group is even higher.

"It's very important for parents to be mindful of this during that period of time and really be involved in the teen's life during that time," said Jennifer Ryan, AAA.

And the fact that teenage drivers have a constant companion with them behind the wheel, driving schools are having to evolve with the times and teach the dangers of technological distractions.

"It's kind of human nature to be distracted so the phone rings, it's kind of like somebody taps you on the shoulder. You have to respond; you can't help it," said Paul Graves, a driving school instructor for Roland Park Driving School. "So we suggest to students to have their phones turned off in the car."

Graves says some parents also want to rush driving lessons so the kids could go off for Beach Week but he says this sort of supervised training shouldn't be rushed.

Despite phones being a major factor, the biggest distraction for teens is other passengers.