Snapchat selfies can wait

More than a quarter of drivers who admit using their phones behind the wheel are taking selfies.

A study of 2,296 motorists found that 61% use their phones while driving, with 27% of them saying they are most likely to be taking pictures of themselves. A further 15% said they would be photographing their surroundings.

Texting was the most popular activity (36%), making and answering calls got to 22% of the vote with 17% of respondents admitting they took videos of themselves singing and dancing along to music.

Those who admitted to taking selfies behind the wheel were asked why they had done so at the time, instead of waiting until they’d come to a stop, to which the most common responses were ‘it was in response to a photo that I received, i.e. on Snapchat’ (33%) and ‘it was a selfie in the moment, couldn’t have been done later’ (31%).

Despite this, 22% of respondents said they had asked other drivers using their phones to pay attention to the road, with a further 41% saying it made them uneasy seeing other motorists on their handsets.

The survey was completed by www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk as part of an ongoing study into Britons on the road.

George Charles said, ‘Young ones these days are rarely seen without a piece of technology in their hand or glued to their ear – so it’s not really a surprise that people even continue this whilst behind the wheel, as completely reckless and dangerous it is. If you receive a snapchat, simply wait until you’ve arrived at your destination in order to look at it and then respond – it’s not going to disappear, it will still be there 10 minutes, an hour or even a few hours later.

It is ironic, though, that people are OK with doing all of this whilst driving, but are uncomfortable being a passenger in a vehicle where the driver is doing this. It’s definitely something to think about next time you get your phone out whilst behind the wheel.’