WASHINGTON-A new government study examining actual driver habits behind the wheel found cell phone use the most common distraction for operators of motor vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which characterized as “landmark” research findings from the 100-car naturalistic driving study, said the number of crashes and near-crashes linked to dialing is nearly identical to the number associated with talking or listening. As such, researchers said dialing is more dangerous, but occurs less often than talking or listening.
“This important research illustrates the potentially dire consequences that can occur while driving distracted or drowsy. It’s crucial that drivers always be alert when on the road,” said Jacqueline Glassman, acting administrator of NHTSA. Her remarks were made during a news conference last week at VTTI in Blacksburg, Va.
The study tracked the behavior of the drivers of 100 vehicles equipped with video and sensor devices for more than one year. During that period, vehicles were driven nearly 2 million miles, yielding 42,300 hours of data. The 241 drivers of the vehicles were involved in 82 crashes, 761 near crashes, and 8,295 “critical incidents.”
“The huge database developed through this breakthrough study is enormously valuable in helping us to understand-and prevent-motor vehicle crashes,” said Dr. Tom Dingus, director of VTTI.
States and cities around the country have responded to distracted driving by outlawing driver use of hand-held cell phones, while permitting hands-free devices. However, U.S. government officials and academics point to research showing hands-free gadgets do not improve driver attention.
The mobile phone industry points to hands-free research and a handful of distracted driving studies to support its contention that education-not legislation-is the key to turning the tide on a cell phone driver distraction problem documented in many government and university studies.
“The study today provides us with additional information that can certainly increase awareness to the many distractions that confront drivers. The wireless industry maintains that educating drivers to act responsibly and focus on the driving task is the most effective means of making the roads as safe as is practically possible,” said CTIA, the national cell phone carrier association. “We’re all aware of the numerous potential distractions that exist and the wireless industry remains committed to encouraging safe and responsible driving.”
While the NHTSA-VTTI data reveals cell phone use is a major culprit in drawing drivers’ attention away from the road, the results indicated there are other distractions in the multi-dimensional task of driving as well.
Among other key findings:
- Drowsiness is a significant problem that increases a driver’s risk of a crash or near-crash by at least a factor of four. But drowsy driving may be significantly under-reported in police crash investigations.
- Reaching for a moving object increased the risk of a crash or near-crash by nine times; looking at an external object by 3.7 times; reading by 3 times; applying makeup by 3 times; dialing a hand-held device (typically a cell phone) by almost 3 times; and talking or listening on a hand-held device by 1.3 times.
- Drivers who engage frequently in distracting activities are more likely to be involved in an inattention-related crash or near-crash. However, drivers are often unable to predict when it is safe to look away from the road to multi-task because the situation can change abruptly leaving the driver no time to react even when looking away from the forward roadway for only a brief time.
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and the District of Columbia have enacted prohibitions against driver use of hand-held phones. However, the various iterations of driver cell phone bans are abundant in state legislatures. The most successful legislative tact in recent years has been to take hand-held phones out of reach of teen and school bus drivers. The driver distraction issue has become a public relations challenge for the mobile phone industry with each new traffic accident in which cell phone use is implicated in the death of a driver, a passenger or an innocent bystanders. States are trying to better assess the degree to which cell phones contribute to reckless driving by improving data collection at accident scenes.
“State legislatures continue to take the lead in response to driver distraction concerns. Although many things and activities can divert a driver’s attention away from the road, the high visibility of cell phones, public opinion, local ordinances and judicial activity have made the cell phone the focus of much state legislative activity,” said the National Conference of State Legislatures. “As cell phones and other wireless devices in motor vehicles continue to increase in popularity, state legislatures will be increasingly challenged to examine and react to concerns about the relationship between phones and traffic safety. Driver distraction legislation, however, has expanded well beyond proposals to prohibit all cell phones in cars. More frequently, legislatures are considering proposals that target specific drivers or cover a wider range of potentially distracting activities.”
