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Fab Mom: Live Streaming Is The New Drunk Driving

After an 18-year-old was driving with her little sister and another teenager when she lost control, she continued to live stream it. The other teen was thrown from the car while her sister died. Here's what we can take away from it.

  1. Number one, teens' addiction to social media is real wake up call to all of us -- live-streaming is the new drunk driving. I kept thinking 'what if that was my kid in the backseat. Showing teens this video and talking about how horrific it is might be the only way to drive the message home -- like organizations who go to schools with victims and cars from drunk driving accidents to give kids visual reference.
  2.  Sixty percent of teen crashes are caused by distracted driving. The number one cause is other passengers in the car. Teens socialize with each other through phones by texting, messaging, live-streaming. The National Safety Council says that 2016 may have been the deadliest year on the roads since 2007.
  3.  For us parents, we need to set examples of how dangerous it is starting when kids are young. There are Apps to block teen phone use when a car is moving, Apple will soon block texts while driving with "do not disturb." It's our responsibility to show that using phone while driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving.

Jill Simonian is an Author of the new book for first-time moms The FAB Mom's Guide: How to Get Over the Bump & Bounce Back Fast After Baby and Parenting Lifestyle Contributor for CBS Los Angeles every Wednesday on News at 5pm and Friday mornings at 6:45am. Her personal blog is TheFabMom.com. Follow Jill on Twitter @jillsimonian and connect with her on Facebook.

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