Crash Risk of Cell Phone Use While Driving: Case-Crossover Study of SHRP 2 Naturalistic Driving Data

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between cell phone use and the risk of being involved in a motor vehicle crash while controlling for individual differences and situational factors that might influence crash risk. Data were from the SHRP 2 Naturalistic Driving Study, which recorded continuous video and kinematic data from a sample of 3,593 drivers for a period of several months between October 2010 and December 2013. The relationship between cell phone use while driving and the risk of crash involvement was quantified using a case-crossover study design in which a driver’s cell phone use in the 6 seconds immediately prior to a crash was compared to the same driver’s cell phone use in up to four instances driving under similar conditions within the three months prior to the crash. Odds ratios for crash involvement in relation to cell phone use were estimated using conditional logistic regression. Results were stratified by mode of cell phone use, crash severity, traffic density, crash type, and driver role in crash. The final study sample included 566 crashes and 1,749 matched baseline epochs. Visual-manual tasks overall and texting in particular were associated with significantly elevated crash risk relative to driving while not performing any observable secondary task; cell phone conversation in the absence of visual-manual interaction with the phone was not. Results confirm that visual-manual interaction with a cell phone while driving increases the risk of being involved in a crash.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AND10 Standing Committee on Vehicle User Characteristics.
• Authors:
  • Owens, Justin M
  • Tefft, Brian C
  • Guo, Feng
  • Fang, Youjia
  • Perez, Miguel
  • McClafferty, Julie
  • Dingus, Thomas A
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 7p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automatic data collection systems; Cellular telephones; Crash causes; Crash severity; Distraction; Occupant kinetics; Risk assessment; Text messaging
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01660873
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-03148
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 22 2018 9:16AM