Driven to distraction by the kids!

A quarter (25%) of the 1,000 people polled by motor company Citroen admitted that the distraction of a child passenger had either led to, or nearly caused, an accident. For 10% of adults, screaming, fighting or general misbehaviour by youngsters was a regular occurrence on car journeys.

In the cases where parents were involved in an accident resulting from the actions of a child passenger, nearly half of the children were under the age of two and nearly a third were aged three to eight.

Undoing seatbelts was one of the most frequently mentioned distractions for parents, along with arguing, fighting over toys, continuous crying and even choking.

Jools Townsend, head of education at road safety charity Brake, commented: "Drivers must be able to concentrate fully on the road and when children are a distraction this poses a real danger. It only takes a split second to lose concentration and crash."