这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报告。
Car crashes are the top killer of American teenagers. Most of the crashes result from distracted driving -- not paying attention to the road.
车祸是美国青少年的头号杀手。这些事故大多是由于“驾驶分心”造成的 -- 没有注意路况。
Ryan Didone was a fifteen-year-old passenger in a car that hit a tree. He was one of the nation's more than thirty thousand victims of traffic crashes in two thousand eight. Nearly four thousand deaths, about twelve percent, involved drivers age fifteen to twenty.
瑞安·迪通是一辆撞到树的车上的一名15岁的乘客。2008年美国发生了超过3万起交通事故，他是其中的受害人之一。这些事故导致了近4千名受害者死亡，大约12%的事故涉及的司机年龄在15到20岁之间。
Ryan's father, Thomas Didone, is a police captain in Montgomery County, Maryland.
瑞安的父亲，托马斯·迪通，是马里兰州蒙郡的一名警长。
THOMAS DIDONE: "It was an inexperienced, immature driver who felt that he was invincible, driving at night with a carload of kids. He was distracted, he was going too fast, and it ended up causing one death and some serious trauma and tragedy for the rest of the community."
托马斯·迪通：“司机是一个无经验、不成熟、认为自己无所不能的人，他在夜间驾车载着一车的孩子。他注意力不集中，开得又快，结果发生车祸，酿成一人死亡多人重伤的悲剧。”
Jim Jennings from the Allstate Insurance Company says the number one cause of distracted-driving accidents is the mobile phone. He says talking on the phone or reaching for it is like drinking four beers and driving.
好事达保险公司的吉姆·詹宁斯说，驾驶分心事故的头号原因是手机。他说，在打电话或取电话就像喝了四瓶啤酒后开车。
JIM JENNINGS: "If you're texting while driving, you are twenty-three times more likely to get into an accident than somebody who isn't. Reaching for a cell phone when it's going off, you're nine times more likely to get into an accident than normally driving."
吉姆·詹宁：“如果你在开车时发短信，发生事故的机率是正常驾驶的23倍。如果你在开车时去够一个不在手边的手机，发生事故的机率是正常驾驶的9倍。”
Government and private groups are using public service announcements and events to bring more attention to the problem. For example, the insurance industry recently held a safety event near Washington for teen drivers.
政府和民间团体通过公共服务通告和安全活动，来引起人们对这个问题的更多关注。例如，保险业最近在华盛顿附近举行了青少年司机安全驾驶活动。
At first, nineteen-year-old Kevin Schumann easily avoided large, inflatable dolls thrown in front of the car to represent children. He also avoided orange cones representing the edge of the road. Then, as part of the test, he started texting. He hit several cones and at least one doll.
最初，19岁的凯文·舒曼轻易避过了扔到车前代表孩子的大型充气玩偶,。他也避开了代表路沿的橙色锥桶。然后，作为测试的一部分，他开始发短信，这时他撞了几个锥桶和至少一个玩偶。
KEVIN SCHUMANN: "That's what really opened up the experience for me, to prove how bad it is to really text and drive."
凯文·舒曼：“这给了我真实的经验教训，让我知道边开车边发短信是多么危险。”
Debbie Pickford of Allstate Insurance says teens are especially at risk from distracted driving -- and not just because they lack experience on the roads.
好事达保险公司的戴比·皮克福特称，青少年开车时分心尤其危险 -- 不仅仅是因为他们缺乏驾驶经验。
DEBBIE PICKFORD: "What we know from research on teen brain development, is that teens don't really have fully developed brains until they're twenty-five years old. You put those two things together and you get a much, much higher risk."
戴比·皮克福特：“对青少年大脑发育所进行的研究显示，年轻人要到25岁的时候大脑才能够充分发育。（再加上经验不足，）两个因素凑在一起，使得青少年开车的风险更高。
New legislation in Congress proposes to require all states to have what is called a graduated driver licensing system. Graduated means teenagers start with restrictions like on night driving and numbers of passengers. They could not get a full driver's license until age eighteen.
国会一项新的法案建议要求所有州实施被称为“驾驶执照结业计划”。该计划意味着青少年最初会受到夜间驾驶和乘客人数的限制，且年满18岁前不能获得完整的驾照。
Thomas Didone shares the story of his son's death to help educate teens and their families about distracted driving.
托马斯·迪通公开了他儿子死亡的经历，以帮助教育青少年及其家人关于驾驶分心的危害。
THOMAS DIDONE: "We have to start doing things that are going to make a difference to change this behavior, because I really don't want to hear about four thousand more kids dying next year."
托马斯·迪通：“我们必须有所作为以改变这种行为，因为我真的不想明年又听到说4000名儿童死于驾驶分心。”