What is Distracted Driving?

Updated March 07, 2014.

We often hear of the death and injury risks of distracted driving. What are drivers doing behind the wheel that takes their minds away from safely navigating the vehicle?

Death toll of distracted driving: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that every day, more than 9 people are killed and more than 1,060 injured in that country, in vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver.

In 2011, 3,331 people were killed, and 387,000 were injured in such accidents.

What distracts a driver? While mobile phone use is most often blamed for causing driver distraction, any activity that takes a driver's attention away from the road qualifies. Such behaviors include:

Talking on a mobile device
Texting
Eating or drinking
Talking to other passengers in the vehicle
Putting on makeup
Consulting a map
Using a global positioning system (GPS) for navigation
Fiddling with a radio or music player
Physical issues such as neck or back pain which divert attention away from the road

Texting and talking on a cell phone remain the most commonly cited driving distractions. Indeed, a 2013 survey by the US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that at any given daylight moment, as many as 660,000 drivers are using mobile phones or operating an electronic device.

Laws prohibiting distracted driving vary among communities and countries; in some jurisdictions texting and driving is banned, for example, while in others, mobile phone use is allowed as long as a hands-free device is used to help keep both hands on the wheel.

Critics of such legislation argue it's the conversation taking place which is distracting, not the device itself.

_Sources:

_{Distracted Driving in the United States and Europe. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Information Sheet. Accessed November 15, 2013.
http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/distracted_driving/}

_{What is distracted driving? US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Public Information Sheet. Accessed November 15, 2013.
http://www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/facts-and-statistics.html}