May 20, 2012

The Hard Truth

  • There are on average 974,000 vehicles on the road being driven by someone on a hand held device
  • Nearly 80% of collisions involve some form of driver inattention
  • Cell phone use accounts for 2,600 vehicle fatalities and 300,000 collisions annually
  • Distracted drivers contribute 10-20% of all motor vehicle crashes
  • Crashes caused by cellphones alone account for an estimated 2,600 fatalities, 330,000 injuries, and cost $43 billion per year
  • Drivers were engaged in some form of distracting activity up to 16.1% of the total time their vehicles were moving
  • In 2009, 5,474 people were killed on U.S. roadways and an estimated additional 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes that were reported to have involved distracted driving (FARS and GES)
  • Of those people killed in distracted-driving-related crashes, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction (18% of fatalities in distraction-related crashes)
  • Of those injured in distracted-driving-related crashes, 24,000 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction (5% of injured people in distraction-related crashes)
  • Sixteen percent of fatal crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving
  • Twenty percent of injury crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving
  • The age group with the greatest proportion of distracted drivers was the under-20 age group – 16 percent of all drivers younger than 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported to have been distracted while driving
  • Of those drivers involved in fatal crashes who were reportedly distracted, the 30- to 39-year-olds had the highest proportion of cell phone involvement

Information cited through APD Collision Reports, NHTSA Reports, AAA Traffic Safety Program, and the FCPCS's report "Technology & Driver Distraction"

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