Young Drivers Report the Highest Level of Phone Involvement in Crash or Near-Crash Incidences

In the first nationally representative telephone survey on distracted driving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported attitudes and behaviors of 6,000 drivers 18 and older from all 50 States and the District of Columbia about distracted driving. This research note extracts information from the December 2011 survey about cell phone use and distracted driving for young drivers. A person was considered a driver if he or she had driven in the past year. The survey used a random-digit-dialing procedure to select one eligible driver within each eligible household and oversampled people 18 to 34 on both landlines and cell phones. The full report contains a description of the survey methodology. Briefly, it was found that about two-thirds (68%) of young drivers 18 to 20 are willing to answer incoming phone calls on some, most, or all driving trips, and most continue to drive, at slightly higher rates than older drivers. Young drivers 18 to 20 have the highest incidence of self-reported crash or near-crash experiences compared to all other age groups and the highest incidence of phone involvement at the time of the crash or near-crash. Like older drivers, most young drivers do not think that talking on a phone while driving affects their driving performance. When it comes to texting while driving, only about 1 out of 5 young drivers think that texting makes no difference to their driving performance. Young drivers under 25 were more aware than older age groups that they drift out of the lane or roadway and were more likely to report that they drive slower when texting. Drivers under 25 are much more likely to text while driving than all other age groups, and the incidence of texting while driving drops with every age group to less than 1% for those 65 and older. For those who text while driving, most continue to drive. Young drivers are less likely to pull over then send their messages than older age groups, but sometimes hand the phone to a passenger. Young drivers are less likely to say something to a driver who is sending a text message while driving than older age groups.

• Record URL:
  http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811611.pdf
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/1922
• Publication Date: 2012-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 5p
• Serial:
  • Traffic Safety Facts - Research Note
  • Issue Number: HS-811 611
  • Publisher: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age groups; Cellular telephones; Crashes; Drivers; Near crashes; Operating speed; Teenage drivers; Text messaging; Traffic incidents
• Uncontrolled Terms: Lane keeping
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01373124
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-811 611
• Files: HSL, NTL, TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 20 2012 4:39PM