Parents on cell phone while driving dangerous for kids

Do you often use your cell phone while driving? You are actually putting your kids at risk.

Parents are no less likely to engage in driving distractions like cell phone use than drivers from the general population, according to a study.

"Nearly 90 percent of parent drivers said they engaged in at least one of the 10 distractions examined in the study while their child was a passenger and the vehicle was moving," said lead author Michelle L. Macy, an emergency medicine physician at University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.

The study was based on responses of 570 parents of 1- to 12-year-old children.

About two-thirds of the respondents said they have responded on cell phones while driving their child.

Nearly 15 percent said they have texted while driving their child.

"Importantly, drivers admitted to other distractions such as giving food to their child more frequently than they disclosed talking on a cell phone," Macy noted.

Giving food to a child or picking up a toy for a child not only requires a driver to take their hands off the wheel but also take their eyes off the road.

We can only expect the problem of technology-based distractions to expand as cell phone use is constantly on the rise, the researchers added in the study published in the journal Academic Pediatrics.