Be an Example When Driving With Teens

Teen "drexting," or texting while driving, is becoming a leading cause of death for teen drivers. Researchers at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y. estimate that there are more than 3,000 annual teen deaths and 300,000 teen injuries nationwide due to texting while driving.

In August 2013, driving-tests.org released a nationwide survey of teen drivers and published the following ways parents can lead by example while driving with their teens.

• Wear a seatbelt, put your cellphone away and focus on the road.

• Talk to your teen about responsible driving, emphasizing the risks of distracted driving along with the dangers of drinking and driving.

• Consider creating a parent-teen driving contract to increase awareness.

• Consider registering your teen for a defensive driving class or allocating additional time to highway driving in traffic, at higher speeds and around trucks.

Apps to Help Prevent "Drexting"

• DriveOFF and TextBuster, available at play.google.com.

• DriveMode, available at att.com, free for AT&T customers with Android or Blackberry devices.

• DriveScribe, available at play.google.com and iTunes.apple.com for Android devices and iPhones.

• Canary, available at play.google.com and iTunes.apple.com for Android devices and iPhones.