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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Car crashes are the top killer1 of American teenagers. Most of the crashes result from distracted driving -- not paying attention to the road.
Ryan Didone was a fifteen-year-old passenger in a car that hit a tree. He was one of the nation's more than thirty thousand victims of traffic crashes in two thousand eight. Nearly four thousand deaths, about twelve percent, involved drivers age fifteen to twenty.
Ryan's father, Thomas Didone, is a police captain in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Police Capt. Thomas Didone's 15-year-old son died in a distracted driving crash.
THOMAS DIDONE: "It was an inexperienced, immature2 driver who felt that he was invincible3, driving at night with a carload of kids. He was distracted, he was going too fast, and it ended up causing one death and some serious trauma4 and tragedy for the rest of the community."
Jim Jennings from the Allstate Insurance Company says the number one cause of distracted-driving accidents is the mobile phone. He says talking on the phone or reaching for it is like drinking four beers and driving.
JIM JENNINGS: "If you're texting while driving, you are twenty-three times more likely to get into an accident than somebody who isn't. Reaching for a cell phone when it's going off, you're nine times more likely to get into an accident than normally driving."
Government and private groups are using public service announcements and events to bring more attention to the problem. For example, the insurance industry recently held a safety event near Washington for teen drivers.
Ryan Didone
At first, nineteen-year-old Kevin Schumann easily avoided large, inflatable dolls thrown in front of the car to represent children. He also avoided orange cones5 representing the edge of the road. Then, as part of the test, he started texting. He hit several cones and at least one doll.
KEVIN SCHUMANN: "That's what really opened up the experience for me, to prove how bad it is to really text and drive."
Debbie Pickford of Allstate Insurance says teens are especially at risk from distracted driving -- and not just because they lack experience on the roads.
DEBBIE PICKFORD: "What we know from research on teen brain development, is that teens don't really have fully6 developed brains until they're twenty-five years old. You put those two things together and you get a much, much higher risk."
New legislation in Congress proposes to require all states to have what is called a graduated driver licensing7 system. Graduated means teenagers start with restrictions8 like on night driving and numbers of passengers. They could not get a full driver's license9 until age eighteen.
Thomas Didone shares the story of his son's death to help educate teens and their families about distracted driving.
THOMAS DIDONE: "We have to start doing things that are going to make a difference to change this behavior, because I really don't want to hear about four thousand more kids dying next year."
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. You can watch a video of this report by Julie Taboh at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember
1 killer | |
n.杀人者,杀人犯,杀手,屠杀者 | |
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2 immature | |
adj.未成熟的,发育未全的,未充分发展的 | |
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3 invincible | |
adj.不可征服的,难以制服的 | |
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4 trauma | |
n.外伤,精神创伤 | |
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5 cones | |
n.(人眼)圆锥细胞;圆锥体( cone的名词复数 );球果;圆锥形东西;(盛冰淇淋的)锥形蛋卷筒 | |
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6 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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7 licensing | |
v.批准,许可,颁发执照( license的现在分词 ) | |
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8 restrictions | |
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则) | |
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9 license | |
n.执照,许可证,特许;v.许可,特许 | |
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