The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) works to reduce the occurrence of distracted driving and raise awareness of its dangers. This risky behaviour poses a danger to vehicle occupants as well as pedestrians and bicyclists. Driver distraction is a specific type of driver inattention. Distraction occurs when drivers divert their attention from the driving task to focus on some other activity. Oftentimes, discussions regarding distracted driving center around cell phone use and texting, but distracted driving also includes other activities such as eating, talking to other passengers, or adjusting the radio or climate controls. A distraction-affected crash is any crash in which a driver was identified as distracted at the time of the crash. * Ten percent of fatal crashes, 15 percent of injury crashes, and 14 percent of all police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2015 were reported as distraction-affected crashes. * In 2015, there were 3,477 people killed and an estimated additional 391,000 injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers. * Nine percent of all drivers 15 to 19 years old involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crashes. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted at the time of the fatal crashes. * In 2015, there were 551 non-occupants (pedestrians, bicyclists, and others) killed in distraction-affected crashes. This research note is based on data from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) General Estimates System (GES). FARS contains data on a census of fatal traffic crashes from all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. NASS GES contains data from a nationally representative probability sample of police-reported crashes of all severities, including those that result in death, injury, or property damage. The national estimates produced from GES data are subject to sampling errors. The NASS/GES Analytic User’s Manual 1988-2015 (Report No. DOT HS 812 320) contains information on sampling errors. As defined in the Overview of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Driver Distraction Program (Report No. DOT HS 811 299), distraction is a specific type of inattention that occurs when drivers divert their attention from the driving task to focus on some other activity instead. The document describes distraction as a subset of inattention (which also includes fatigue, and physical and emotional conditions of the driver). However, while NHTSA may define the terms in this manner, inattention and distraction are often used interchangeably or simultaneously in other material, including police crash reports. It is important that NHTSA and NHTSA’s data users be aware of these differences in definitions. It is also important to acknowledge the inherent limitations in the data collection for distraction-affected crashes and the resulting injuries and fatalities. The appendix of this document contains a table that describes the coding for distraction-affected crashes for FARS and GES as well as a discussion regarding limitations in the distracted driving data. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting