Tina Knoles is also looking to work with District 186 on updating the curriculum for driver’s education courses. The textbooks currently being used are outdated and do not include information on texting.

However, Nika says he is constantly using online resources, such as video clips or articles, to present current issues like texting while driving and to make the material more engaging for students. He says he and his students discuss texting while driving at least one class period per week for each of the nine weeks of his driver’s education course.

Why text? A psychological approach

Dr. Neil Bernstein, a private practitioner in Washington, D.C., and member of the American Psychological Association, says there are many personality types to consider when trying to understand why a person might text and drive.

Some people can rationalize the risks of texting while driving and think they are invulnerable, able to multitask with one hand on the wheel and the other on the phone, he says. Others are more compulsive; for them waiting to respond to a text is almost not an option. For others, texting is an addictive activity, where a person’s phone has become part of their life and that person cannot be without it. These addictive habits are similar to those of video game players, he says, who feel driven to pick up a game controller, just as a texter picks up a phone.

“When someone has a feeling that they can’t get along without something, that’s when it has an addictive quality,” Bernstein says.

Tate says these compulsive people are recognizable, in or out of a car.

“You can definitely tell those people before they’re in a vehicle,” Tate says. “You can probably assume they’ll be the same way after they’re inside a car.”

Other individuals are more likely to suc-cumb to peer pressure, Bernstein says. If they don’t respond to a text, they think it might somehow impact their social status. These individuals think that if others are texting while driving, then they can do the same.