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Page 1 of 2 They are young, distracted and they think they’re invincible. Most experts agree: teen drivers are dangerous. Conchita Canty-Jones may be a mother, but she’s not naïve. She works at the Kimbell Full Service Center, a branch of the Hillsborough county school district that’s devoted to working with parents. She also has a teenage daughter who just learned to drive. Canty-Jones wanted to know how 17-year-old Coco was doing, so she agreed to let Tampa Bay’s 10 install hidden cameras in the family’s Infiniti I-30. Tampa Bay’s 10 took the car to Privacy Electronics in Pinellas Park, where technicians installed 2 pin-sized cameras, one in each pillar on either side of the front window.
Footage was collected over 6 days, and after that, Tampa Bay’s 10 sat down with mother and daughter to go over the footage. A series of clips showed Coco falling prey to several different driving distractions: taking her hands off the steering wheel to do her hair while on the way to school and taking her eyes off the road to hand a bottle to her baby sister in the back seat. For Coco’s mom, the footage with the baby in the car was the most disturbing. “Looking at the tape, [I think that] maybe at this point, that it is a little too much to have [her little sister] in the car,” Canty-Jones observed. Canty-Jones also admitted that she is just as bad when it comes to turning around to give the baby attention in the back seat. Of all the distractions, Coco’s cell phone proved the most prolific. “I don’t think my driving gets worse when I talk on the phone,” Coco said. Tampa Bay’s 10 took the footage to a driving instructor who had a much different opinion. “Whichever hand she’s holding the phone in, it’s going to cut down on her peripheral vision,” said Jim Roberts of Safer Dixie Driving School in Pinellas Park. “If somebody pulls out in front of her, or if somebody steps off a curb, she’s not going to be ready to deal with that.” Angelo Telesca wishes he could turn back time and talk to his teen about safe driving.
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