What Drives Us to Distraction

Despite the bad press that cell phone use by motorists has received, it is not the most distracting, or dangerous, behavior displayed by the nation's drivers, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. All drivers engage in some kind of distracting activity while they are driving, with the majority reaching and leaning for things while they should be keeping their eyes on the road.

“Around a quarter of all traffic crashes are caused by distractions, which annually account for 1.2 million incidents,” said Peter Kissinger, president of the AAA Foundation. “People often underestimate the seriousness of distractions because not every distraction leads to a crash. But if you are distracted just when someone pulls out in front of you, your lack of attention can be catastrophic.”

% of Subjects

% of Total Time

Reaching,Leaning, etc.

97.1

3.8

Manipulatingmusic/audiocontrol

91.4

1.4

Eating, drinking, etc.

71.4

4.6

Conversing

77.1

15.3

Grooming

45.7

0.3

Passenger

44.4

0.9

Reading orwriting

40.0

0.7

Using cell phone

30.0

1.3

Smoking

7.1

1.6

Source: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

In a joint study with the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, researchers used in-car video cameras to see how drivers behaved when they were behind the wheels of their own cars. The tapes showed that distraction is an everyday occurrence. Over three hours of driving, all of the drivers were distracted at some point, 90 percent by something outside the vehicle and 100 percent by something inside.

The good news is that people do adjust their behavior to a certain extent, according to Kissinger. Overall, vehicles were stopped an average of 15.3 percent of the time that they were in use, yet 70 percent of reading and writing, 34 percent of grooming, and 25 percent of cell phone use occurred while the vehicle was not moving.