Distracted Driving Prevention Stats and Facts

FACTS

  1. Distracted driving happens anytime you focus on anything that’s not the road.
  2. Many people drive to work every day, but workers in the transportation industry spend more time on the road than anyone else – leaving them at greater risk of transportation accidents than any other group.
  3. Truck and sales drivers are among the top ten most dangerous jobs in the country.
  4. There are three main types of distracted driving:
  • Visual distracted driving is when you take your eyes off the road. 
  • Manual distracted driving is when you take your hands off the wheel. 
  • Cognitive distracted driving is when you take your mind off the road.

STATS

  • Distracted driving claimed 3,142 lives in 2019.
  • Distracted driving claimed 3,450 lives in 2016, and 391,000 individuals were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in 2015, according to NHTSA.
  • 10% of fatal crashes, 15% of injury crashes, and 14% of all police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2015 were reported as distraction-affected crashes, NHTSA reported.
  • In 2018, 2,841 people were killed and 400,000 were injured in distracted driving car accidents
  • 16% of crashes with injuries involved reports of distracted driving
  • Drivers who use hand-held devices are 4 times more likely to get into a serious accident
  • Texting while driving creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted
  • Distracted driving crashes are under-reported, and the National Safety Council (NSC) estimates that cell phone use alone accounts for 27% of vehicular crashes.
  • The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year.
  • In the U.S. in 2018, over 2,800 people were killed and an estimated 400,000 were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver. (CDC)
  • Nearly 330,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving.
  • 1 out of every 4 car accidents in the United States is caused by texting and driving.
  • Texting while driving is 6x more likely to cause an accident than driving drunk.