Numbers don’t lie – distracted driving increases the risk of accidents. Numerous studies have been conducted. So how much does the chance for an accident increase when drivers are distracted? How many people are using phones or otherwise distracted while driving? Is there a law against cell phone use while driving?
To spread the word during Distracted Driving Awareness Month and help answer those questions, we’ve compiled data from many different resources into easy-to-understand facts, and we’re presenting them as shareable graphics. Feel free to grab them and use them on social media or for presentations. Show them to your friends. The risk of being in an accident caused by a distracted driver is very, very real.
As experienced personal injury attorneys with many years working car accident injury cases, we mean business when we say: don’t drive distracted.
Beware iPhone Users
A survey of mobile device users by The Zebra revealed some stunning differences between respondents who used different mobile operating systems.
Cell Phones, Driving, and the Law Across the U.S.
As of 10/2019, 20 states and the District of Columbia banned handheld devices while driving, while 48 states plus D.C. have banned texting while driving with Montana having no ban, and Missouri having only a partial one. And 38 states, plus D.C., have enacted blanket bans on cell phone use while driving for younger drivers, though how they classify those drivers differs by state.
Police Aren’t Always Capturing the Real Cause of Distracted Driving Accidents
According to the National Safety Council, no state fully captures the data required to understand what actually causes crashes to enable safety organizations to effectively address the problem.
The crash reports used by police are plainly lacking. Here are some critical data points and the number of states which fail to track them on their accident reports:
The Gender Gap in Distracted Driving
According to data gathered in 2015, there are some interesting gaps in behavior regarding distracted driving between men and women:
Along for the Ride: How Passengers Say They Feel About Distracted Drivers
Driving while distracted is bad enough. Being a passenger and having your well-being in the hands of someone more interested in a text than the road? Most people aren’t having it:
