Here is some of the latest research on distracted driving and related safety issues, with the focus on cell phone use and text messaging.
Handheld Cellphone Use and Risky Driving in Adolescents
Catherine C. McDonald, Kevin Rix … University of Pennsylvania, etc. Study of 140 newly licensed adolescents in Pennsylvania. October 2024.
Quote: “Trips with handheld cellphone use and speeding were associated with higher rates of kinematic risky driving events.”
Roadside Assistance Providers Fatally Struck by Vehicles at the Roadside
AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Study of industry and federal records, 2015-21. January 2024.
Quote: “These observations suggest that many drivers who drove off the road before striking a (roadside assistance provider) might have been impaired, fatigued, or distracted.”
Habits, attitudes, and expectations of regular users of partial driving automation systems Alexandra Mueller and Jessica Cicchino, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Survey of partially automated vehicle drivers. October 2022.
Quote: Drivers were “more likely to engage in non-driving-related activities while using their systems than while driving unassisted. … Large percentages of users indicated they were comfortable treating their systems as self-driving.”
Evidence From Traffic Safety Messages
Jonathan Hall and Joshua Madsen, Carlson School of Management. Study of Texas traffic fatalities. April 2022.
Quote: “We found that displaying fatality messages (on highway dynamic message signs) increases the number of traffic crashes. … Displaying a higher fatality count causes more crashes than displaying a small one. … (We find) strong support for a temporary distraction effect caused by fatality messages.”
Bans on Cellphone Use While Driving and Traffic Fatalities in the United States
M. Zhu, S. Shen … Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Analysis of traffic fatality rates. September 2021.
Quote: “Comprehensive handheld bans were associated with fewer driver fatalities, but calling-only, texting-only, texting plus, and calling and texting bans were not. This could be due to greater compliance; comprehensive bans clearly send the message that cellphones are not to be handled at all while driving.”
Smartphone Use While Driving: An Investigation of Young Novice Driver (YND) Behaviour
Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software. Study of 700 young German drivers. February 2021.
Quote: “There is a strong association between those who speak on their phone and those who engage in risky activity with potentially fatal consequences, such as intoxicated driving, ignoring red traffic lights, and driving with more passengers than seatbelts.”
2019 Traffic Safety Culture Index
AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Sample of 2,714 licensed drivers. June 2020.
Quote: “A majority of drivers view typing (96.2 percent), reading (94.3 percent), and talking (79.7 percent) on a hand-held cellphone while driving to be very or extremely dangerous. … Nevertheless, 43.2 percent of drivers report having driven while talking on a hand-held cellphone at least once in past 30 days.”
Interacting With Android Auto and Apple Carplay When Driving
R. Ramnath, N. Kinnear … TRL Limited for IAM RoadSmart. Drives on simulated test routes. January 2020.
Quote: “(Data) clearly demonstrate that interacting with either Android Auto or Apple CarPlay when driving increases demand on the driver and requires attentional resources that impact driving performance. … For both touch and voice control with both systems, reaction times were greater than established benchmarks of the effect of alcohol consumption (at the legal limit) and cannabis use on reaction time when driving.”
Plight of the Distracted Pedestrian: a Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis of Mobile Phone Use on Crossing Behaviour
S. Simmons, J. Caird … University of Calgary. Database searches. January 2020.
Quote: “Both mobile phone conversation and text messaging increased rates of (pedestrian) hits and close calls. Texting decreased rates of looking left and right prior to and/or during street crossing.”
Do Advanced Driver Assistance and Semi-Automated Vehicle Systems Lead to Improper Driving Behavior?
N. Dunn, T.A. Dingus, S. Soccolich, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Naturalistic studies of driver behavior. December 2019.
Quote: “Simultaneous use of (adaptive cruise control) and (lane-keeping assistance) systems was associated with a 50% increase in the odds of engaging in any form of secondary task and an 80 percent increase in the odds of engaging in visual and/or manual secondary tasks.”
Head and Neck Injuries Associated With Cell Phone Use
R. Povolotskiy, N. Gupta, A. Leverant, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Sample of 2,501 reported cases from national medical database. December 2019.
Quote: “Cell phone–related injuries to the head and neck have increased steeply over the recent 20-year period, with many cases resulting from distraction. Many of these injuries occurred among those aged 13 to 29 years and were associated with common activities, such as texting while walking.”
Age-Related Differences in the Cognitive, Visual and Temporal Demands of In-Vehicle Information Systems
J.M. Cooper, C.L. Wheatley, M.M. McCarty … AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and University of Utah. On-road driver tests. July 2019.
Quote: “Older drivers experienced higher levels of cognitive and visual demand, compared to younger drivers, for both (in-vehicle information system) tasks and baseline tasks. … Older drivers took longer to complete tasks across all modes of interaction.”
Texting-While-Driving Bans and Motor Vehicle Crash–Related Emergency Department Visits in 16 US States: 2007–2014
A. Ferdinand, A. Aftab, M. Akinlotan, Texas A&M University School of Public Health. Analysis. Data from 16 US states between 2007 and 2014. March 2019.
Quote: “On average, states with a texting ban saw a 4 percent reduction in MVC-related ED visits. Both primary and secondary bans were associated with significant reductions in MVC-related visits to the ED.”
Driving While Distracted: Challenges and Solutions
IAM RoadSmart, Britain. White-paper analysis. February 2019.
Quote: “Nowhere is (the distracted driving) challenge more pressing than for those driving for work, who are constantly under time and cost pressures, never more so than today with the rise of the smartphone. … It is imperative that fleet managers — and their leaders — take a fresh look at professional driver training.”
Distracted Driving, Visual Inattention, and Crash Risk Among Teenage Drivers
P. Gershon, K. Sita, C. Zhu … Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Real-world driving data from newly licensed teenagers in Virginia. November 2018.
Quote: “The analyses found that 41% of the association between manual cellphone use and teenagers’ crash risk was mediated by the duration of eyes off the road. … The remaining 59% of the association between manual cellphone use and crash risk may be attributed to the physical demands of operating the phone while driving and possibly additional cognitive load that the driver endures.”
The effects of texting and handheld bans on motorcyclist fatalities
M. T. French and G. Gumus, University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University. Analysis of data from Fatality Analysis Reporting System. November 2018.
Quote: “Motorcyclists are at heightened risk of being a victim of distracted driving. … Texting/handheld bans significantly reduce motorcyclist fatalities. … Policy makers should consider strengthening texting/handheld bans along with their enforcement to improve safety and save lives, especially among motorcyclists.”
Factors Associated With Cell Phone Use While Driving: A Survey of Parents and Caregivers of Children Ages 4-10 Years
C. MacDonald, University of Pennsylvania. Online survey of parents who drive children. June 2018.
Quote: “We found that many parents and caregivers of children ages 4-10 years engage in cell phone use while driving when their children are in the vehicle with them. Those who also engage in other high-risk behaviors such as alcohol-impaired driving, not wearing a seat belt on every trip and inconsistent (child restraint system) use on every trip are also more likely to use a cell phone while driving.”
Harnessing Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) Communication Technology: Sending Traffic Warnings to Texting Pedestrians
P. Rahimian, University of Iowa. Study using “pedestrian simulator.” June 2018.
Quote: “Mobile devices and short-range communication technologies offer enormous potential to assist pedestrians. … (but there are) limits of warning texting participants once they initiate a crossing and (there is a) possible overreliance on technology that may lead to reduced situation awareness.”
Observational Study of Handheld Cellphone and Texting Use Among California Drivers
W. Bommer. California State University, Fresno, for Office of Traffic Safety. Field observation of drivers in all California counties, April-August 2017. October 2017 report.
Quote: “Distracted driving due to hand-held and estimated hand-free electronic devices fell in 2017 … a significant decrease from recent years. … Being alone in a vehicle greatly increased the likelihood of engaging in electronics use.”
Visual and Cognitive Demands of Using In-Vehicle Infotainment Systems
D. Strayer, J. Cooper, R. Goethe … University of Utah. On-road study of visual and cognitive demands of infotainment systems. September 2017.
Quote: “Of the 30 vehicles (infotainment systems) tested, 23 vehicles generated high or very high levels of overall demand on drivers. … All modes of interaction produced very high overall demand on drivers.”
The Impacts of Perceptual Load and Driving Duration on Mind Wandering in Driving
M. Geden, A. Staicu, J. Feng. North Carolina State University. Driving-simulator study of perceptual load and driving duration. September 2017.
Quote: “Relatively little is known about internal distraction such as mind wandering. … While mind wandering, individuals’ driving performance fluctuates greatly, which has significant implications on driving safety for individual drivers and overall traffic flow.”
Pokémon Go: A New Distraction for Drivers and Pedestrians
J. Ayers, Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University. Study of Twitter and online news reports. September 2016.
Quote: ” ‘Pokémon Go’ is a new distraction for drivers and pedestrians. … It is in the public interest to address augmented reality games before social norms develop that encourage unsafe practices.”
Cortical processing during smartphone text messaging
W. Tatum, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla. Study of 129 volunteers via video-EEG monitoring. June 2016.
Quote: Discovery of a “texting rhythm” in brain waves: “There is now a biological reason why people shouldn’t text and drive — texting can change brain waves.”
Adults Aged 65 and Older Use Potentially Distracting Electronic Devices While Driving
E. Vernon, G. Babulal, D. Head, School of Medicine in St. Louis. Survey of elderly drivers. June 2015.
Quote: “Age significantly predicted cellular telephone use while driving and owning a smartphone, with younger age linked to both cellular telephone use and smartphone ownership.”
Prevalence of Environmental Factors and Driver Behaviors in Teen Driver Crashes
C. Carney, D. McGehee, K. Harland, AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Study of in-vehicle event recorder data from teen crashes. March 2015.
Quote: “Cell phone use was more common in road departure crashes and contributed to significantly longer reaction times … (and was) much more prevalent in the current study than in official statistics based on police reports.”
Effects of texting on driving performance in a driving simulator: The influence of driver age
G. Rumschlag, T. Palumboa, A. Martin, Wayne State University. Simulator study of 50 “drivers.” October 2014.
Quote: “Cell phone texting during simulated driving increased the frequency and severity of lane excursions (violations). … For (self-described) highly skilled texters, the effects of texting on driving are actually worse for older drivers.”
Impact of Texting Laws on Motor Vehicular Fatalities in the United States
A. O. Ferdinand, N. Menachemi, University of Alabama at Birmingham. Fatality Analysis Reporting System analysis. August 2014.
Quote: “Texting-while-driving bans were most effective for reducing traffic-related fatalities among young individuals (but) handheld bans appear to be most effective for adults.” Secondary enforcement laws did not result in “significant reductions in traffic fatalities.”
The Economic and Societal Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes
L.J. Blincoe, T.R. Miller, E. Zaloshnja, B.A. Lawrence. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Data study. May 2014.
Quote: “Crashes involving a distracted driver … cost the nation $46 billion in 2010, an average cost of $148 for every person in the U.S. Including lost quality of life, these crashes were responsible for $129 billion of the overall societal harm caused by motor vehicle crashes.”
Social Norms and Risk Perception: Predictors of Distracted Driving Behavior Among Novice Adolescent Drivers
P. Carter, C. Bingham, J. Zakrajsek … University of Michigan School of Medicine. Nationwide phone survey of 403 adolescents and their parents. May 2014.
Quote: “92% of adolescents reported regularly engaging in distracted driving behavior. Adolescents engaged frequently in texting/cell phone behaviors, with 48% reporting texting and 68% reporting talking on a telephone at least once a trip.”
Impact of Michigan’s Text Messaging Restriction on Motor Vehicle Crashes
J. Ehsani, C. Bingham, E. Ionides, D. Childers, Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Study of crash rates and trends for drivers in Michigan, 2005–2012. May 2014.
Quote: “We hypothesized that the introduction of the texting restriction for all drivers would be followed by a reduction in crashes of all severities. (But) statistically significant increases in crash rates and trends in fatal/disabling injury crashes and nondisabling injury crashes and decreases in possible injury/PDO crashes were observed. … The relationship between texting restrictions and crashes is complex.”
Distracted Driving and Risk of Crashes Among Novice and Experienced Drivers
S. Klauer, F. Guo, B. Simons-Morton, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. In-vehicle tracking of new and veteran drivers. January 2014.
Quote: “Novice drivers engaged in secondary tasks more frequently over time … possibly because of increased confidence in driving… Dialing and texting (is a) significant risk factor, particularly among novice drivers.”
Fatalities of Pedestrians, Bicycle Riders and Motorists Due to Distracted Driving Motor Vehicle Crashes
J. Stimpson, F. Wilson, R. Muelleman, University of Nebraska Medical Center. Analysis of U.S. fatalities, 2005-2010. November 2013.
Quote: “Distracted drivers are the cause of an increasing share of fatalities found among pedestrians and bicycle riders. … 18.6% of the distracted driving-related crashes were cell phone-related.”
The Effects of a Production Level “Voice Command” Interface on Driver Behavior
B. Reimer, B. Mehler, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Road tests with 60 drivers. November 2013.
Quote: “Depending on the task assessed … both positive features and concerns associated with the use of the voice interface were identified. … (There was) a high level of visual demand/engagement during selected tasks.” Read more about the MIT study.
Impact of Hand-Held and Hands-Free Cell Phone Use on Driving Performance
G. Fitch, S. Soccolich, F. Guo, etc., Virginia Tech Transportation Institute for U.S. Department of Transportation. “Naturalistic driving study” backed by cell phone records. April 2013.
Quote: “Talking on a cell phone, of any type, was not associated with an increased safety-critical event risk. … Visual-manual subtasks (such as dialing) performed on a handheld cell phone were associated with an increased (crash) risk … and significantly increased the percentage of time drivers took their eyes off the forward roadway. … About half of the hands-free cell phone interactions involved visual-manual subtask.”
Crashes Involving Cell Phones: Challenges of Collecting and Reporting Reliable Crash Data
National Safety Council. Comparison of crash reports to data in Fatal Analysis Reporting System. May 2013.
Quote: “There is strong evidence to support that underreporting of driver cell phone use in crashes is resulting in a substantial underestimation of the magnitude of this public safety threat. … There is no reliable method to accurately determine how many crashes involve cell phone use; therefore, it is impossible to know the true scope of the problem.”
Texting Bans and Fatal Accidents on Roadways: Do They Work?
R. Abouk, S. Adams, University of Wisconsin. Analysis using fatality data. April 2013.
Quote: “Bans appear moderately successful at reducing single-vehicle, single-occupant accidents if bans are universally applied and enforced as a primary offense. Bans enforced as secondary offenses, however, have at best no effect on accidents. This is suggestive of drivers reacting to the announcement of the legislation only to return to old habits.”
Teens and Technology 2013
Mary Madden, Amanda Lenhart, etc. Pew Internet Project. Phone survey of 802 teens and parents. March 2013.
Quote: “Smartphone adoption among American teens has increased substantially and mobile access to the internet is pervasive. … Among teen smartphone owners, half are ‘cell-mostly’ Internet users.”
Pedestrian Injuries Due to Mobile Phone Use in Public Places
J. Nasar, D. Troyer. Ohio State University and DOT. Study of emergency room injuries, 2004-2010, nationwide. August 2013.
Quote: “Mobile-phone related injuries among pedestrians (paralleled or exceeded) the increase in injuries for drivers. … Using a mobile phone while walking puts pedestrians at risk of accident, injury or death.”
Mobile Device Use While Driving: U.S. and 7 European Countries
Rebecca Naumann, Ann Dellinger. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. European and U.S. surveys (2011). March 2013.
Quote: “More than two-thirds of U.S. adult drivers aged reported they had talked on their cell phone while driving at least once in the past 30 days. (In European countries), percentages ranged from 20 percent to 60 percent.”
Is Your Baby Safe on the Road?
American Baby and Safe Kids Worldwide. Survey of 2,396 female drivers with a child under age 2. January 2013.
Quote: “78% of (surveyed) moms talk on the phone while driving with their kids. … 26% text or check email. … Nearly 10% of new moms have been in a crash while driving with their baby — nearly three times higher than the rate among the general population.”
Pedestrian Safety Survey
Ketchum Global Research & Analytics for Liberty Mutual Insurance. Phone survey of 1,004 adults. June 2013.
Quote: “60 percent of pedestrians walk while texting, emailing, talking on the phone, or listening to music despite 70 percent considering those behaviors to be dangerous. … A 2011 report (found) 1,152 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms after being injured while walking and using a cell phone or some other electronic device.”
Observational Study of Cell Phone and Texting Use Among California Drivers 2012
Ewald & Wasserman for Safe Transportation Research and Education Center UC Berkeley. 5,664 vehicle observations from 129 sites. November 2012.
Quote: “The percentage of distracted driving by electronic devices observed increased to 6.2% in 2012 from 4.2% in 2011. … The age group of 16-24-year-olds had a significantly higher rate of distracted driving (11.4 percent) compared with older age groups.”
Teen Driver Distraction Study
University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and Toyota Collaborative Safety Research Center. National phone survey of of 2,610 teen drivers and 2,934 parents. November 2012.
Quote: “Parents who engage in distracting behaviors more frequently have teens who engage in distracting behaviors. … Teens read or send text messages once a trip 26 times more often than their parents think they do.”
The Influence of Music on Mental Effort and Driving Performance
A. Ünal, L. Steg, K. Epstude. University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Driving simulations with loud music. September 2012
Quote: “Listening to music increased mental effort while driving (but) drivers who listened to music performed as well as the drivers who did not. … Mental effort might mediate the effect of music on driving performance.” (Read more about the driving study.)
Effects of Electronic Billboards on Driver Distraction
Tania Dukic, Christer Ahlstrom, etc. Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute. (Published in the Traffic Injury Prevention journal.) Study of 41 volunteer drivers. October 2012.
Quote: “Drivers had a significantly longer dwell time, a greater number of fixations and longer maximum fixation duration when driving past an electronic billboard compared to other signs on the same road stretches. Whether the electronic billboards … constitute a traffic safety hazard cannot be answered conclusively based on the present data.”
Distracted Driving Among Newly Licensed Teens
A. Goodwin, R. Foss, S. Harrell, N. O’Brien, UNC Highway Safety Research Center/AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Video recorders in family vehicles. March 2012.
Quote: “Electronic device use and other distracted driving behaviors were strongly associated with (teens’) looking away from the roadway. … Females were twice as likely as males to be using an electronic device.”
Young Drivers Report the Highest-Level Phone Involvement in Crash or Near Crash Incidences
J. Tison, N. Chaudhary, L. Cosgrove, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. National phone survey on distracted driving attitudes and behaviors. December 2011.
Quote: “Only about 1 out of 5 young drivers think that texting makes no difference to their driving performance. … 68 percent of young drivers 18 to 20 are willing to answer incoming phone calls on some, most, or all driving trips.”
Impact of Variations in Short-Term Memory Demands on Drivers’ Visual Attention and Driving Performance
B. Reimer, B. Mehler, Y. Wang, J.F. Coughlin, J.F. MIT field study. February 2012.
Quote: “Drivers’ awareness of vehicle surroundings is incrementally impacted by increases in cognitive demand (such as thinking about unrelated problems).” (article)
Two Hands Better Than One
S. Jamson, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds (U.K.). Driving simulator tests of one-handed drivers. Funded by Esure. April 2012.
Quote: “(Driver) reaction times increased by 44 per cent when eating behind the wheel (22 percent while drinking). … Participants made the most corrections to their steering when talking on a mobile-device.”
High School Students Improve Motor Vehicle-related Health Behaviors
Centers for Disease Control: 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey. 15,000 high school students surveyed in 43 states. 2011.
Quote: “The use of technology among youth has resulted in new risks; specifically, 1 in 3 high school students had texted or e-mailed while driving … during the past 30 days.”
Surveillance to Inform Distracted Driving Policy: A Survey of College Students
Training, Research and Education for Driving Safety unit, UC San Diego. Self-selected online survey of college students (18-25) in San Diego County. Late 2011.
Quote: “Distracted driving is a highly prevalent behavior in college students, who have higher confidence in their own driving skills and ability to multitask than they have in their colleagues. … The higher the witnessing of distracted driving in others, the more likely the student was to engage in distracted driving.”
Cognitive Distraction While Multitasking in the Automobile
D. Strayer, J. Watson, F. Drews. University of Utah Applied Cognition Lab. Driving simulator study. February 2011.
Quote: “Cell phone use (by a driver) significantly increases the risk of a motor-vehicle accident. … Passenger conversations do not. … Cell phone use induces a form of inattention blindness. … Impairments can be as profound as (driving) while at the legal limit of alcohol.”
Americans and Text Messaging
A. Smith. Pew Research Center. National phone survey of adults. September 2011.
“Cell owners between the ages of 18 and 24 exchange an average of 109.5 messages on a normal day. … Overall, the survey found that both text messaging and phone calling on cell phones have leveled off for the adult population as a whole. … (When asked how they prefer to be contacted on their cell phones), heavy text users were much more likely to prefer texting to talking.”
- Read more about distracted driving safety research
Note: Inclusion on this list does not indicate HandsFreeInfo endorsement of any distracted driving study’s conclusions or methodology. Commercial sponsorships may or may not affect research results. Some special interests-backed studies deliberately excluded from this list. Surveys conducted online are not statistically valid.
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