Distracted Driving Overview

Mike Witter, Regional Administrator National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Region 5

2012 Traffic Engineering and Safety Conference Champaign, Illinois

October 18, 2012

Distracted Driving Problem

In 2010, at least 3,092 people were killed and an additional 416,000 were injured in crashes involving distraction. An estimated 18% of injury crashes were reported to have involved distraction.

Distracted Driving Defined

Distraction is anything that can take visual, manual or cognitive resources away from the driving task.

Distraction occurs when drivers divert their attention from the driving task.

Three Types of Distraction:

Visual - Eyes off the road

Manual - Hands off the wheel

Cognitive - Mind off the driving task

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Growing Popularity of Cell Phones

About 302 million Americans owned cell phones in 2010,

compared to only 1 million in 1987.

The National Health Interview Survey found that nearly one in four households were wireless only (no land line), up nearly 2 percentage points from the year before.

The popularity of text messaging has increased to 2 trillion in 2010, a 31% rise.

Multiple media service (MMS) increased 64% since 2009 to 56.6 billion annually. MMS allows users to send videos, pictures and text pages. At the same time, minutes of use increased to 2.2 trillion.

Relative Risk

Most crashes involve a relatively unique set of circumstances that make precise calculations of risk for engaging in different behaviors very difficult. Available research does not allow us to precisely determine what is the riskiest behavior. Different studies and analyses have arrived at different relative risk estimates for different tasks. However, they all show elevated risk when the driver is distracted.

Greater Exposure = Greater Risk

Distracted Driving Equal Opportunity Problem Driver Distraction

impacts: •Men and women •People of all ages •All Vehicle types

At any given moment during the daylight hours, over 672,000 vehicles are being driven by someone using a hand-held cell phone.

People of all ages are using a variety of hand-held devices, such as cell phones, mp3 players, personal digital assistants, and navigation devices, when they are behind the wheel.

State Text Messaging Bans July 2011

OH

RI

MD

AK

Primary Enforcement

(all drivers)

Secondary Enforcement

(all drivers)

Novice Drivers Only

PR

AR

DE

NJ

VA UT

WY

TN

WA

OR

NC

NY MN

DC

LA

IL

CT

CO

CA

ME

VT

NH

MA

PA

WV

SC

GA

FL

AL MS

TX

OK

NM

HI

AZ

NV

ID

MT ND

SD

NE

KS

IA

MO

WI

MI

IN

KY

Distracted Driving Laws

Hand Held Cell Phone Bans in the U.S.

Except for Maryland, all these laws are primary enforcement— An officer may cite a driver for using a handheld cell phone without any other traffic offense taking place.

California

Connecticut

Delaware

Maryland

Nevada

New Jersey

New York

Oregon

Washington

District of Columbia

Virgin Islands

NHTSA Driver Distraction Program Plan

NHTSA has implemented a multi-year Distraction Plan and Research Agenda that will further examine driver communications and entertainment devices, including cell phones, and will also continue to monitor the research of others on this subject.

NHTSA’s Driver Distraction Program Plan

NHTSA Goal: Eliminate Crashes Due to Distraction

Distracted Driving Initiative 1

Improve the understanding of the problem: Improve police

reporting, analyze additional crash data, continue observational,

awareness, hazard anticipation, and naturalistic studies, etc.

Distracted Driving Initiative 2

Reduce workload from interfaces: Develop test procedures to

evaluate in-vehicle and nomadic devices.

NHTSA is reviewing the extent to which manufacturers are following basic

human factors guidelines as well as guidelines put forth by the Alliance of

Automobile Manufacturers.

NHTSA will release voluntary Driver Distraction Guidelines that apply to

in-vehicle device tasks performed by the driver through visual-manual

means.

Distracted Driving Initiative 3

Keep distracted drivers safe: Improve crash warning systems.

Distracted Driving Initiative 4

Recognize risks and consequences: Assess the effect of high-

visibility law enforcement and targeted media campaigns.

Distracted Driving High Visibility

Enforcement Demonstration

In April 2009, NHTSA initiated distracted driving demonstration

programs in two communities to test whether a high visibility

enforcement (HVE) model could reduce two specific instances

of distracted driving -- talking or texting using a hand-held cell

phone.

Syracuse, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut, conducted the

demonstrations.

The demonstrations spanned over four waves:

(March 2010, July 2010, October 2010 & March/April 2011)

Goals and Objective

Test whether a high visibility enforcement

model reduces instances of talking or

texting on a hand-held cellular phone

while driving.

Will the approach persuade motorists not to

talk/text on hand-held phones while driving?

Will law enforcement be able to observe

violations?

Will the approach affect motorists’ perceived

risk of receiving a fine for violating the ban?

Click It or Ticket Model

The approach used in distracted driving demonstration project

was based on the proven Click It or Ticket (CIOT) model.

This model involves aggressive enforcement activities that are

readily apparent to motorists.

The enforcement activity is coupled with paid and earned media

developed to alert the public of the enforcement with the end

goal being deterrence.

These techniques have been highly successful in increasing

safety belt use and reducing impaired driving nationwide in the

past decade.

Tagline and Logo

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Earned Media

◦ Articles

◦ Media ride along

Outreach Materials

◦ DDEP Flyers

◦ DDEP ticket folder folders

◦ DDEP lens cleaning cloths

Earned Media and Outreach

Evaluation

Before and after each wave, NHTSA conducted observations of driver cell phone use and collected public awareness surveys at driver licensing offices in each test and comparison site.

Albany, New York, served as the comparison area for Syracuse. Bridgeport and Stamford, Connecticut, were selected as control areas to match the demographics of the three Hartford area cities.

No media was purchased in the control sites and law enforcement officers continued their usual enforcement activities without special emphasis on cell phone laws.

Observational Surveys

Cell phone use observations were taken at 15 sites in each intervention area, plus 15 sites in Albany, NY 15 in Stamford, CT and 7 sites in Bridgeport, CT.

Sites were selected from road segments based on traffic volume estimates. The main goal of site selection was to capture the bulk of the traffic streams in the given area.

Distracted Driving Demo Final Results

(Hartford, CT)

Observed Hand-held Phone Use

The percentage of drivers

observed holding their phones to their ears decreased from baseline to the end of the fourth wave.

The reduction was significantly greater in Hartford (from 6.8% to 2.9%) than the control site (from 6.6% to 5.6%).

These changes represent a 57% drop in observed cell phone use for the Hartford site compared to a 15% drop at the control site.

Distracted Driving Demo Final Results

(Hartford, CT)

At the end of each individual

wave, observers counted significantly fewer Hartford drivers manipulating their phones compared to the beginning of each wave.

Overall there was a significant decrease in observed phone manipulation, from 3.9% to 1.1% in Hartford. This represents a 72% decline.

There was no significant difference in observed cell phone manipulation in the control sites, from 2.8% to 2.4%.

Observed Phone Manipulation (texting/dialing)

Distracted Driving Demo Final Results

(Syracuse, NY)

Fewer drivers in Syracuse were

observed holding cell phones to their ears at the end of the fourth wave (from 3.7% to 2.5%). This 32% decrease was statistically significant.

In the control site, there was also a significant 40% reduction in observed hand-held cell phone use from 5.0% to 3.0%.

Observed Hand-held Phone Use

Distracted Driving Demo Final Results

(Syracuse, NY)

Drivers who were texting while driving declined 32% in Syracuse (from 2.8% to 1.9%).

Albany’s observed rate of manipulating a phone while driving was much higher than Syracuse at the baseline period.

Syracuse showed an overall decrease of 32% in observed phone manipulation from the baseline to the end of the fourth wave.

Observed Phone Manipulation (texting/dialing)

What We Learned…

Awareness about cell phone use and texting was remarkably high.

The messaging campaigns were successful in disseminating enforcement message.

Enforcement was strong; police in both sites issued a large

number of tickets in both sites, many times above previous benchmark levels.

Officers are developing best-practices for enforcement (e.g.,

observing texting violations is difficult for an officer who is standing on the side of the road but successful from higher observation points or SUVs, developing easy to use reporting forms).

What We Learned…

“…Good laws coupled with

tough enforcement can reduce

deadly distracted driving

behavior” – Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood

Law Enforcement Involvement

Law enforcement involvement was the key to the project’s success.

Uniformity of purpose by all involved agencies was vital to the perception of the public.

Behavioral Approach

Public Awareness Campaign Federal Employee Texting Ban Federal Ban on Texting for Commercial Truck Drivers Sample Law to Prohibit Texting While Driving FRA Distracted Operator Final Rule PHMSA Texting Rule

“Every time we climb

into the driver’s seat, we all have a responsibility

for keeping our roads safe by putting away cell

phones and other distractions.”

- Transportation

Secretary Ray LaHood

NHTSA will further evaluate the widespread application of

the high visibility enforcement model to ascertain its effectiveness to raise public awareness about the risks of distracted driving.

In 2012, NHTSA will build upon the success of the community-based pilot demonstration projects and will initiate two statewide high visibility enforcement distracted driving campaigns (Delaware and California).

NHTSA is collaborating with FMCSA to incorporate

commercial motor vehicle components into the statewide demos.

Next Steps

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21)

Provides $22.5 M in FY 3013 and $23.1 M in FY 2014 To comply, State law must have primary texting ban for all

drivers, cell phone ban for young drivers. Law must have minimum fines, increased for repeat Some exemptions for emergencies At least 50% must be used for education, signs, and

enforcement, up to 50% for any behavioral safety. First-year only grant of 25% may be awarded for States with

existing primary texting laws otherwise ineligible. Allocation based on FY 2009 S. 402 distribution.

Next Steps (cont’d)

DOT continues to strengthen existing partnerships and build new partnerships to spread the word about distracted driving issues, data and resources.

Secretary LaHood and the National Safety Council (NSC) helped launch FocusDriven, the first national nonprofit organization devoted specifically to raising awareness about the dangers of Distracted Driving.

DOT will partner with the Network of Employers for Traffic

Safety (NETS) during Drive Safety Work Week in October 2011 to raise awareness (thru employee networks) about the dangers of distracted driving.

DOT will partner with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to promote employer resources.

Partnerships

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Thank you

For more information visit:

www.distraction.gov