- 20% of injury crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving. (NHTSA)
- Of those killed in distracted-driving-related crashed, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction (18% of fatalities in distraction-related crashes). (NHTSA)
- In 2009, 5,474 people were killed in 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)
- The age group with the greatest proportion of distracted drivers was the under-20 age group – 16% of all drivers younger than 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported to have been distracted while driving. (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)
- Using a cell phone use 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 0.08%. (Source: University of Utah)
Distracted Driving
80% of all crashes involve the driver looking away from the forward roadway just prior to (within three seconds) the onset of the event. (Source: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute)
Police-reported data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and the National Automotive Sampling show that:
- In 2009, there were 30,797 fatal crashes in the United States, which involved 45,230 drivers. In those crashes 33,808 people died.
- The proportion of fatalities reportedly associated with driver distraction increased from 10% in 2005 to 16% in 2009. During that time, fatal crashes with reported driver distraction also increased from 10% to 16%.
- The portion of drivers reportedly distracted at the time of the fatal crashes increased from 7% in 2005 to 11% in 2009.
- Of those drivers reportedly distracted during a fatal crash, the 30-to-39-year-old drivers were the group with the greatest proportion distracted by cell phones. Cell phone distraction was reported for 24% of the 30-to-39-year-old distracted drivers in fatal crashes.
- An estimated 20% of 1,517,000 injury crashes were reported to have involved distracted driving in 2009.
