1. DISTRACTION NATION What drivers are willing to do
©National Safety Council 2010

2. National telephone poll Adjusted for state population
March & May 2016 (May = 900 more teens)
Teen age respondents: 1,005
51.2% on restricted GDL license
55% male / 45% female
Adult respondents: 2,409
48% male / 52% female
All have cell phones

3. How would you talk on phone while driving?
Hands-free: headset, speakerphone, in-vehicle
©National Safety Council 2010

4. ADULTS: Assuming there’s no law, how often would you do the following while driving?

5. TEENS: Assuming there’s no law, how often would you do the following while driving?

6. Significantly higher for teens, 95%

7. ADULTS: Which social media would you use while driving at least rarely?

8. TEENS: Which social media would you use while driving at least rarely?

9. Significantly higher for teens, 95%

10. ALL: Where would you do the following

11. ALL: Would you do the following while driving on the freeway where you drive speeds of 55 mph or more
Phone calls 39.8% Digital music/apps 32.3% Program GPS 22.1% Smartwatch features 21.0% Read/post social media 16.7% Review/send texts 15.6% Take/post photos/video 15.6% Video chat 14.8% Watch TV/movie on phone 13.6% Laptop/Tablet 13.1% Review/send 11.4% Surf Internet 10.6%

12. Assessing willingness to use voice-activated vs manual controls

13. ALL: How would you do the following activity when driving Program/search location using GPS
MANUAL
Would use manual controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use manual controls built into my phone
32.1%
42.4%
39.4%
40.2%
VOICE
Would use voice-activated controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use voice-activated controls built into my phone
Teen drivers significantly more willing to use voice

14. ALL: How would you do the following activity when driving Adjust settings/controls on digital music/app
MANUAL
Would use manual controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use manual controls built into my phone
34.0%
52.3%
33.7%
31.1%
VOICE
Would use voice-activated controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use voice-activated controls built into my phone
Teen drivers significantly more willing to use voice

15. ALL: How would you do the following activity when driving Review or send emails
MANUAL
Would use manual controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use manual controls built into my phone
17.9%
51.3%
32.4%
30.1%
VOICE
Would use voice-activated controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use voice-activated controls built into my phone

16. ALL: How would you do the following activity when driving Review or send text messages
MANUAL
Would use manual controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use manual controls built into my phone
15.6%
54.3%
28.4%
38.9%
Adults significantly more willing to use manual on phone
VOICE
Would use voice-activated controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use voice-activated controls built into my phone

17. ALL: How would you do the following activity when driving Make or answer phone calls
MANUAL
Would use manual controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use manual controls built into my phone
16.8%
49.5%
35.3%
43.8%
VOICE
Would use voice-activated controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use voice-activated controls built into my phone
Teen drivers significantly more willing to use voice

18. ALL: How would you do the following activity when driving Read or post social media
MANUAL
Would use manual controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use manual controls built into my phone
19.3%
56.9%
26.5%
26.9%
VOICE
Would use voice-activated controls built into the dashboard of my vehicle
Would use voice-activated controls built into my phone
Teen drivers significantly more willing to use voice

19. Some of you may remember in the 80s and 90s when cell phones were called car phones?
They were sold as business productivity tools. So there’s no wonder they’re seen as that today.
But few people used them decades ago. They were big bricks or in bags. Gordon Gekko could afford the best of everything and even he had a big clunky phone. Contracts were expensive. You paid by minute – like there were 25-minute plans. The wireless networks weren’t as reliable as today, so calls got dropped. You couldn’t have a very long ongoing conversation while driving. Most non-business drivers wanted the phones for emergencies, not to talk a lot on them.
But as the phones got smaller and using them got cheaper, and with Apple more and more features were added to the phones, people started using them more until we got to where we are today – they’re a part of our bodies.
We didn’t know what we didn’t know back then. We didn’t know that studies starting in the mid-90s and would find that the phone conversation is distracting. Through the 2000s that research started piling up. At NSC we gathered all that research in a white paper about the mental distraction of phone conversation that we released in We reviewed over 30 studies that found driver distractions in cell phone conversation both handheld and hands-free.
So now that we know the risks, it is time to change our practices.
You could think of it as a similar situation as asbestos. Asbestos had great properties for insulation, fireproofing, condensation protection and reinforcement. It was a very beneficial material for lots of building needs. Until we discovered its serious health effects and we had to adjust what we did with it.
And so at this point we need to do the same with cell phones and driving.

20. Who is pressuring drivers?
54% of drivers feel pressure from employers to use phones while driving
Overall, 82% feel pressure from families
Of teen drivers, 73% feel most pressured by friends
We know there are a lot of different distractions. Why focus on cell phones? Three reasons:
-- High risk
-- High prevalence of phone use while driving
-- Drivers not aware of the distraction
The risk of crash while talking on a cell phone was found in two different studies – one in Australia and one in Canada. Both found the same result. Researchers studied drivers who had been in injury crashes severe enough to go to the emergency room, and drivers who were in property damage crashes.
The risk of crash is four times as likely when using phones while driving – handheld or hands-free
The reason why we focus so much on phone conversation as a risk is because there is a significantly increased crash risk, and there are large numbers of drivers talking on phones for a longer length of time.
The numbers of drivers using phones behind the wheel come from observations that the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration does annually at intersections. The most recent available estimates are from NHTSA found that about 8% of drivers are using cell phones at any daylight moment. This is a large number of drivers.
Drivers are aware when they are visually or manually distracted, like when turning to reach for something in the back seat or yell at kids in the back seat. So drivers tend to limit how often and for how long they do these distractions while driving.
Unfortunately drivers tend to not be aware when they are mentally distracted (also called cognitively distracted), like when talking on a phone, so the distraction lasts longer because the driver does not stop.
This is why we focus so much on preventing cell phone distraction.

21. Contact Info
Deb Trombley NSC Distracted Driving Program