The Risk of Distracted Driving

A distraction is anything that takes your mind and attention away from driving

There are three main types of distraction¹:
- Visual — taking your eyes off the road
- Manual — taking your hands off the wheel
- Cognitive — taking your mind off what you’re doing
A 2013 survey by Liberty Mutual and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions)found that teens felt pressure to stay connected or “always on” contributed to their need to engage with cell phones, even while driving²:
- 48% of teens reported texting more when alone in their car
- 55% reported texting while driving to update parents
- 37% reported texting to coordinate or confirm event details with friends
- 34% reported taking their eye off the road when receiving an app notification

Cell phone use while driving is highest among 16-24-year-old drivers, and female drivers using a cell phone are more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than male drivers⁹
Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves³
Distracted driving related crashes accounted for 7% (202) of all teen deaths that occurred in 2018⁵.
256 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted teen driver in 2018⁵.
Engaging in visual-manual sub-tasks (such as reaching for a phone, dialing and texting) associated with the use of hand-held phones and other portable devices increased the risk of getting into a crash by three times⁶.
Texting and driving causes reaction time to double and those drivers have a harder time staying in their lane and maintaining a consistent speed⁷.

More fatal teen crashes occur when passengers (often other teens) are in the car³.
Over 57% of teens that died as passengers were in vehicles driven by other teens in 2018³.
Crash risks and the risk of being killed in a crash increases as the number of young passengers in the vehicle increases⁸.

Focus on the road. While you are driving is not the time to multi-task.
Keep distractions out of the car. If you know you will be tempted to look at or use your phone, lock it in the trunk or turn it off.
Ask passengers to obey your rules while they are in the car, meaning buckle up and don’t distract you.
Designate a texter. If you have a passenger, hand over your phone so they can do the texting and/or talking for you.
Be a good passenger by not distracting the driver.
Know that as a driver, you have a responsibility to yourself and others. A vehicle is heavy machine and should be treated with respect.
Set your music/radio before you take your car out of Park.
Never use headphones while driving. It’s illegal and dangerous.
Keep passengers to a minimum. If every person doesn’t have a seat belt, you have too many passengers.
If you don’t feel well or emotionally able to drive – don’t. Ask for a ride or wait until you are able.

_Sources:

https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/distracted_driving/index.html
Liberty Mutual & SADD, 2013 https://www.libertymutualgroup.com/about-lm/news/news-release-archive/articles/new-study-finds-teens-fear-of-missing-out-is-proving-to-be-dangerous
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Fatality Facts 2017: Teenagers. Retrieved from https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/teenagers#passenger-vehicle-occupants
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812197.pdf
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2017. Traffic Safety Facts: Distracted Driving 2017: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812931
NHTSA, Distraction.gov
Texas A&M Transportation Institute
Ouimet MC, Pradhan AK, Brooks-Russell A, Ehsani JP, Berviche D, Simons-Morton BG. Young drivers and their passengers: a systematic review of epidemiological studies on crash risk. 2015. Journal of Adolescent Health 57 (1 Suppl): S24-35.
AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 2015