Facts
- “Distraction” is a specific type of inattention that occurs when drivers divert their attention from the driving task to focus on some other activity instead. (Source: Overview of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Driver Distraction Program).
- The No.1 source of driver inattention is use of a wireless device. (Source: Virginia Tech/NHTSA)
- Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves. (Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
- Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent. (Source: Carnegie Mellon)
- Using a cell phone while driving, whether it’s hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver's reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent. (Source: University of Utah)
Pew Internet & American Life Project research done in 2009 for Teens & Distracted Driving shows the following:
- 75% of all American teens ages 12-17 own a cell phone, and 66% use their phones to send or receive text messages.
- Older teens are more likely than younger teens to have cell phones and use text mes-saging; 82% of teens ages 16-17 have a cell phone and 76% of that cohort are cell texters.
- One in three (34%) texting teens ages 16-17 say they have texted while driving. That translates into 26% of all American teens ages 16-17.
- Half (52%) of cell-owning teens ages 16-17 say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. That translates into 43% of all American teens ages 16-17.
- 48% of all teens ages 12-17 say they have been in a car when the driver was texting.
- 40% say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger.