Distracted Driving and Risk of Road Crashes among Novice and Experienced Drivers

By S. Klauer, F. Guo, Bruce G. Simons-Morton, M. Ouimet, Suzanne E. Lee, T. Dingus. New England Journal of Medicine, 2014

779 citations recorded by the source corpus.

BACKGROUND Distracted driving attributable to the performance of secondary tasks is a major cause of motor vehicle crashes both among teenagers who are novice drivers and among adults who are experienced drivers. METHODS We conducted two studies on the relationship between the performance of secondary tasks, including cell-phone use, and the risk of crashes and near-crashes. To facilitate objective assessment, accelerometers, cameras, global positioning systems, and other sensors were installed in the vehicles of 42 newly licensed drivers (16.3 to 17.0 years of age) and 109 adults with more driving experience. RESULTS During the study periods, 167 crashes and near-crashes among novice drivers and 518 crashes and near-crashes among experienced drivers were identified. The risk of a crash or near-crash among novice drivers increased significantly if they were dialing a cell phone (odds ratio, 8.32; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.83 to 24.42), reaching for a cell phone (odds ratio, 7.05; 95% CI, 2.64 to 18.83), sending or receiving text messages (odds ratio, 3.87; 95% CI, 1.62 to 9.25), reaching for an object other than a cell phone (odds ratio, 8.00; 95% CI, 3.67 to 17.50), looking at a roadside object (odds ratio, 3.90; 95% CI, 1.72 to 8.81), or eating (odds ratio, 2.99; 95% CI, 1.30 to 6.91). Among experienced drivers, dialing a cell phone was associated with a significantly increased risk of a crash or near-crash (odds ratio, 2.49; 95% CI, 1.38 to 4.54); the risk associated with texting or accessing the Internet was not assessed in this population. The prevalence of high-risk attention to secondary tasks increased over time among novice drivers but not among experienced drivers. CONCLUSIONS The risk of a crash or near-crash among novice drivers increased with the performance of many secondary tasks, including texting and dialing cell phones. (Funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.)

Subfields: Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation, Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality, Social Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

• The iPhone Effect (2016, background): “…been found to perform significantly poorly compared with people listening to music, books on tape, conversing with a passenger, and even those who were legally drunk (Drews, Pasupathi, & Strayer, 2008; Hunton & Rose, 2005; Klauer et al., 2014; Strayer & Drews, 2007; Strayer, Drews, & Crouch, 2006).”
• Driver crash risk factors and prevalence evaluation using naturalistic driving data (2016, methodology): “During this study, a case-cohort approachwas used to evaluate the risk associated with each contributing factor of a crash (8, 10).”
• Smartphone use and smartphone addiction among young people in Switzerland (2015, background): “Examples of adverse physical effects include neck pain symptoms (Lee, Kang & Shin, 2015) or accidents affecting pedestrians and drivers while the phone is used when the user is driving (Klauer et al., 2014; Shelton, Elliott, Lynn & Exner, 2009).”
• Monitoring driver cognitive load using functional near infrared spectroscopy in partially autonomous cars (2016, background): “…that most drivers make use of cellular phones while driving [2]; there is a growing trend towards use of smart phones and other brought in devices [3]; a third of drivers 18-24 years of age believe they can take their eyes off the road for 3 to 10 seconds without increasing risk of accident [4].”
• Time distortion associated with smartphone addiction: Identifying smartphone addiction via a mobile application (App). (2015, background): “Texting, using the Internet and reaching for your phone all increase the risk of a motor vehicle crash or near-crash (Klauer et al., 2014).”