Increase in young drivers taking dangerous ‘selfies’ at the wheel

21 Mar, 2014 3:00pm Alex Yau

Over 10,000 ‘selfie’ photos of people driving cars have been uploaded to social networking sites since 2010

Young drivers are increasingly using social networks and taking ‘selfies’ while driving, endangering their own or other motorists’ lives, new research suggests.

Insurance experts Confused.com surveyed 2,000 drivers and 9 per cent of those aged between 18 and 24 admitted to using photo-messaging app Snapchat when driving.

Twitter was accessed by 8 per cent of these young drivers and Instagram by 5 per cent. Around 7 per cent of motorists surveyed across all age groups admitted to taking a ‘selfie’ while in the driver’s seat.

Worryingly, over 10,000 ‘selfies’ taken behind the wheel have been uploaded to Instagram since it launched in 2010 and are often tagged with #DrivingSelfie or #DrivingSelfies. These are also accompanied with other hashtags like #bored, #dangerous, #LuckyWeDidntCrash, #safedriver and #LookMaNoHands.

The Oxford Dictionary crowned ‘selfie’ the 2013 word of the year and the term often refers to taking a photograph of yourself with a smartphone or webcam before uploading it to a social media website.

More than a third of all the 2,000 motorists surveyed said they used their phone when driving, whilst 9 per cent have suffered an accident as a result. Fines for using a mobile device while driving increased from £60 to £100 last year, but many drivers still disregard this. Around one in 10 surveyed admitted to being caught by police, but 57 per cent still committed the same offence afterwards.

What do you think about drivers taking 'selfies' at the wheel? Tell us in the comments section below...

Disqus - noscript

Submitted by WesternYeoman on Sat, 2014-03-22 14:38.

Simple solution.

Use a mobile phone at the wheel & holding it in your hand, you get caught.

Offence 1: ~84 day driving ban (~3 months), £500 fine, 6 pts.

Offence 2: ~182 driving ban (~6 months), £1500 fine, 6 pts

(This would of course give you another ban on top of the one for the offence & run directly after the 6 month one)

Offence 3: 365 day ban (~1 year), £4500 fine, 12 pts
(This would of course give you another ban on top of the one for the offence & run directly after the 12 month one)

Offence 4: PERMANENT BAN: £13500 fine, vehicle destroyed, 24 months jail.

Collide with another vehicle, Kill or injure someone whilst on the phone (non hands free), instant 24 month jail term, £5000 fine (minimum), 10 year ban (Collision), PERMANENT BAN for death or injury.

Get caught doing stupid things like this on a young persons driving licence or within the 2 year probationary period, ban until at least 21 years or for 2 years. extended annual retest for the two years, black box data recorder fitted & £2000 fine.

GET TOUGH!.

Submitted by Nicko on Sat, 2014-03-22 22:32.

No big surprise here, after all, these young people need something to do to relieve the boredom whilst they're piloting their vehicles. Its a shame so few actually seem to enjoy driving for its own sake.