Apr 28, 2023

National Distracted Driving Coalition Holding up a smartphone as he kicked off a day long conference on distracted driving this week, National Transportation Safety Board vice chairman Bruce Landsberg gave the device a disgusted look, and warned the audience of an addiction to the devices leading to deadly consequences. Bruce Landsberg, National Transportation Safety Board vice chairman speaking at the "Seeking ... [+] Solutions to Eliminate Distracted Driving" conference in Washington D.C. on April 26, 2023. National Distracted Driving Coalition “Just say no, doesn't work. We know it doesn't work with drugs, and it doesn't work with the addiction that these things provide and it is an addiction. They are designed to be addictive by the folks who put them together. So every death and every injury from these crashes is 100% preventable,” declared Landsberg in his opening remarks at the “Seeking Solutions to Eliminate Distracted Driving" conference sponsored by the National Distracted Driving Coalition (NDDC) in Washington D.C. on Wednesday. The NDDC was created by the NTSB to research and take action to reduce distracted driving, a growing problem brought to the public's attention during April, designated as National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Sophie Shulman, deputy director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration delivering a ... [+] keynote speech at the "Seeking Solutions to Eliminate Distracted Driving" conference in Washington D.C. on April 26, 2023. National Distracted Driving Coalition MORE FOR YOU “According to the police reports in 2021, we lost 3,522 friends, family members and neighbors to distracted driving,” noted Sophie Shulman, deputy director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in her keynote speech at the NDDC conference. More broadly, in a December, 2022 report, the NDDC revealed distracted driving is estimated to play a role in 25%-30% of fatal crashes, citing, there were 3,142 deaths and an estimated additional 324,652 injured on U.S. roadways as a result of distracted driving, according to NHTSA. “Of concern, eight percent of fatal crashes, 14% of injury crashes, and 13% of vehicle collisions in 2020 reported to police involved distraction as a contributing factor (NHTSA, 2022),” the report said. Landsberg framed the issue using a stark aviation metaphor declaring, “If we pull up the number of distracted driving fatalities compared to aviation, we would be losing one airliner a week, one airliner a week that's the losses that we have due to distracted driving.” That's only a microcosm of the deadly affects of distracted driving as revealed in a sweeping report on the issue released earlier this month by telematics company Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT). The report revealed drivers were 30% more distracted in February 2022 than they were in February 2020, making it the worst month for phone distraction in the U.S. since 2019. An increase in distracted driving resulted in a corresponding increase in deaths and economic losses, according to the report which noted, “CMT’s data shows that every 10% increase in distracted driving kills over 420 people and costs the American economy $4 billion per year. With the 23% surge in distraction since 2020, CMT estimates that the increase in distracted driving caused an additional 420,000 crashes, 1,000 fatalities, and $10 billion in damages to the US economy in 2022. Distracted driving is caused by basically anything that takes the driver's attention away from the road including speaking on a smartphone, reading or sending texts, eating, fiddling with infotainment controls or simply having a conversation with passengers. But the introduction of smartphones is seen as a key driver of motorist distraction, resulting injuries and deaths. “When the iPhone was introduced in 2007, over 4,600 pedestrians were killed on American roadways. By 2021, 85% of Americans owned a smartphone, 7,485 pedestrians were killed — the most in 40 years — and there were 985 cycling deaths, the highest since 1990,” states the CMT report, which goes on to say, “NHTSA estimates that distracted driving killed 3,522 people in 2021, but caveats that the “estimates are almost certainly conservative because they are based only on identified distraction cases.” Indeed, the report shows not only has smartphone use increased by drivers, but so has the length of time they're being used while behind the wheel. Drivers interacted with their phones on nearly 58% of trips in 2022, up from 54% in 2020, according to the report. Screen interaction while driving reached two minutes and 12 seconds of every hour driving in 2022, a 23% increase over 2020. Chart from Cambridge Mobile Telematics indicating a relationship between smartphone use and injuries ... [+] and deaths attibuted to accidents caused by distracted driving. Cambridge Mobile Telematics “The increase in crashes when drivers interact with their screens is stark: The worst offenders are 240% more likely to crash than the safest drivers,” the report stated. Of course there are other distractions taking drivers' attention away from the road including o more elaborate and complex infotainment screens for choosing entertainment and comfort options. In the case of smartphones, some of this technology can be addictive, as asserted by the NTSB's Bruce Landsberg, but the increase in distracted driving may also be attributed to opportunity, especially when one is stuck in traffic. One way to mitigate that is by finding ways to keep traffic moving, said Bobby Lee, director of marketing and spokesperson for LYT , a cloud-based software platform aimed at reducing traffic congestion. Bobby Lee, director of marketing and spokesperson for LYT. LYT “Triple A foundation for traffic safety says that, you know, when we're sitting in traffic, we're two to four times more likely to be distracted and that leads to really dangerous things on the road. For example, with buses, one of the areas that we focus on at LYT, that 60,000 bus involved accidents annually,” said Lee in an interview. His company is using a combination of artificial intelligence and machine learning to keep traffic moving by prioritizing when traffic signals turn green. It not only clears the way for emergency and transit vehicles, it better regulates overall traffic flow, which also reduces the opportunity for drivers to be distracted. “So when you can keep people moving when they're engaged on the roadway.That means there's fewer distractions, that means they're going to get there faster, fewer minutes of distraction, and that means less, less, less danger to all of us,” explained Lee. To reduce smartphone use and better understand the extent of driver distraction in general, there are a number of mobile apps and technologies monitoring and recording smartphone use. Some apps provide the option of disabling a smartphone while the vehicle is in motion. Several insurance companies are offering the use of mobile apps that monitor driving habits of their customers and lowering premiums for those resisting distractions and exhibit overall safe practices. Most smartphones contain a do not disturb mode which users can choose to block incoming calls, texts or notifications. The NTSB's Sophie Shulman also suggested storing a smartphone in the vehicle's glove box or in a bag in the back of the car. She noted 25 states ban handheld cell phone use to reduce distraction while a number of communities are fighting the issue with so-called high-visibility enforcement. “There's no magic wand to solve this problem,” concluded Shulman. “Instead it will take all of us working together on many aspects including data collection, research, technology, laws, and equitable enforcement to take behavior to save lives.” Follow me on  Twitter .