Two recently released reports on Distracted Driving make interesting reading.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) report covers an analysis of survey data relating to mobile phone use (for making calls and texting/emailing) while driving, both in the United States and Europe. 

Blank-IT is designed to control driver access to computers/laptops when the vehicle is in motion, and most current research addresses mobile/smartphone use, so the most relevant figure from our point of view is that over 25% of U.S. drivers aged between 18-29 reported texting or emailing ‘Regularly or Fairly Often’ – and that is the proportion that actually owned up to it (it is expected that people generally under-report such activity in these surveys).

We have reproduced one of the graphs from the survey below, but please visit the CDC Distracted Driving page for full details.

Texting and Emailing while driving chart - from CDC

CDC chart showing texting while driving stats - reproduced from the CDC website - see CDC link above for full report

Meanwhile, the WHO (World Health Organisation) report (co-funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) is a comprehensive study of mobile phone use in relation to Driver Distraction. Again, the focus of the report is mobile phones, but there is also much that is relevant to all technology related distractions, and the report acknowledges distraction caused by laptop and computer use as having many of the same characteristics.

The report covers definitions of Driver Distraction and the extent of the current problem, the effects of technological distractions and potential interventions to address the problem.

The full PDF (2.3MB) can be viewed here: WHO report – Mobile Phones and Driver Distraction

For more information about the Blank-IT Distracted Driving solution, visit the Blank-IT website.