Cellphone-Related Distracted Driving

Public Policy Position Adopted June 2024

WHEREAS cellphones are used for calling, texting, and accessing social media or other apps while driving, and

WHEREAS cellphone-related distracted driving, including manual, visual, and cognitive distractions, is prevalent worldwide, and

WHEREAS cellphone-related distracted driving substantially increases the risk of crashes, injuries, and deaths, and

WHEREAS comprehensive bans on handheld cellphone use while driving are associated with fewer deaths, injuries, and crashes, and

WHEREAS partial bans (e.g., calling-only bans, texting-only bans, and calling and texting bans) of handheld cellphone use while driving have not been effective, and

WHEREAS hands-free cellphone use is reasonably safer, compared with handheld cellphone use,

BE IT RESOLVED that cellphone regulations should ban all handheld cellphone use by drivers while driving.

The banned activities should include all handheld cellphone use, including calling, texting, emailing, browsing the internet, taking photos/videos, video chatting, watching videos, and using apps.
Only hands-free cellphone use should be permitted.
For GPS/directions applications, the address should be entered before driving to a destination.
The ban should apply to drivers stopped in traffic or at stop lights. Although the crash risk is low when drivers are stopped in traffic or at stop lights, drivers often continue their cellphone use when the car resumes moving.

Rationale

Cellphone use while driving is prevalent. We define cellphone use as handheld when the driver manually holds the phone or hands-free when using Bluetooth, earbuds, a wired headset, or a speaker phone. For context, cellphone use while driving does not refer to manually entering an address in a GPS app before driving to a destination. A 2019 American Automobile Association (AAA) survey found that drivers’ handheld cellphone use over 30 days was 43% for talking, 39% for reading a text/email, and 30% for manually typing or sending a text/email. Approximately 9% of drivers talked, and 6% texted on handheld cellphones often. Hands-free cellphone use was also commonplace, with the same AAA study finding 64% of individuals talked while driving and 26% sent a text/email.

Cellphone use while driving, however, is not limited to calling, texting, and emailing. Other cellphone use includes browsing the internet, taking photos/videos, video chatting, watching videos, and using numerous other apps. A 2022 survey found that 70% of licensed drivers reported using their cellphones while driving in the past 90 days. In that study, 62% of drivers reported they had called, video called, or texted, 37% checked social media or used an app, 27% took a photo, 26% recorded, live-streamed, or watched a video, 25% checked or sent an email, and 16% reviewed a document. A 2018 survey of road users reported that the percentage of handheld calling over 30 days was 29% in 20 European countries, 38% in North America, 38% in five Asian and Oceanic countries, and 54% in five African countries. The percentage of hands-free calling was 48% in Europe, 51% in North America, 55% in Asia, and 67% in Africa. The rate of reading a text message/email or checking social media apps was 24% in Europe, 36% in North America, 37% in Asia, and 47% in Africa.

Cellphone-related distracted driving is associated with increased traffic crashes, injuries, and fatalities. Cellphone use may involve three domains of distraction from the primary driving task: manual distraction (i.e., hands off the steering wheel), visual distraction (i.e., eyes off the road), and cognitive distraction (i.e., mind off the driving task). Redelmeier and Tibshirani reported that in Canada, the risk of a property-damage-only crash when a driver uses a cellphone was 4.3 times the risk when a driver does not use a cellphone. An Australian study reported that the risk of crashes resulting in emergency department visits when drivers use cellphones was 4.1 times the risk when drivers do not use cellphones. The second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2), the world’s most extensive naturalistic driving study, continuously monitored over 3,000 drivers in the United States between October 2010 and December 2013. The researchers found that the crash risk resulting in property damage or injury when drivers used handheld cellphones was 3.6 times the risk when drivers were alert, attentive, and sober (i.e., model driving behavior). Relative to model driving behavior, the crash risk was more than six times higher for handheld texting, more than 12 times higher for dialing a number, nearly three times higher for browsing on a handheld phone, and more than two times higher for handheld talking. Data from the SHRP 2 program revealed that drivers took their eyes off the road for over 23 seconds for handheld texting and approximately eight seconds for handheld dialing and handheld browsing, much longer than the 0.5 – 2.5 seconds that have been measured for pushing a button to begin a hands-free call. For every five seconds that a driver’s eyes are off the road, they have driven the length of a football field at 55 miles (88 kilometers) per hour with closed eyes. Cellphone use while driving is common among parents and caregivers when transporting their children, particularly when the children are not properly restrained. This behavior puts the child passenger(s) and driver at risk for crashes and injuries.

Comprehensive bans on handheld cellphone use are effective. Comprehensive handheld cellphone bans clearly convey to the driver that cellphones are not to be held by hand in any capacity while driving. As of January 2023, 21 of 50 US states have banned any handheld cellphone use while driving for drivers of all ages (i.e., a comprehensive handheld cellphone ban). The scope of these comprehensive handheld cellphone bans includes texting, calling, reading/posting to social media, internet browsing, or any other form of handheld cellphone use but permits hands-free use. A study analyzing fatal crashes in the United States between 1999 and 2016 found that comprehensive handheld cellphone bans were associated with a 7% lower driver fatality rate than no cellphone ban. A comprehensive ban facilitates enforcement as it is difficult for police to distinguish texting from calling and other phone use. Further, research has demonstrated that drivers may believe that citations are a distinct possibility if legislation prohibits cellphone use broadly. Approximately 150 countries worldwide have enacted national laws restricting or prohibiting handheld cellphone use while driving. One global voluntary performance target for road safety by the United Nations General Assembly is “by 2030, all countries have national laws to restrict or prohibit the use of mobile phones while driving.” (World Health Organization. Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030)

Partial bans on handheld cellphone use are not effective. As of January 2023, 29 US states and the District of Columbia had not enacted comprehensive handheld cellphone bans. Among them, three states and the District of Columbia banned handheld calling and texting while driving, 24 states prohibited handheld texting, and two states had no ban on handheld cellphone use for drivers of all ages. The study of fatal crashes in the United States between 1999 and 2016 found that calling-only bans, texting-only bans, and calling and texting bans were not associated with fewer driver deaths. An investigation of traffic collision insurance claims reported that texting-only bans in California, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Washington were not associated with fewer traffic collision insurance claims. A study of Michigan traffic crashes from 2005–2012 found that a texting-only ban was associated with a slight increase in crashes involving fatal, disabling, or visible injuries and a small decrease in crashes involving possible injury or property damage only. One research group found that drivers may think texting-only bans are not enforceable. For example, drivers may believe they could avoid a ticket by saying they were not texting but calling when pulled over. One study found that more tickets were issued when both calling and texting were banned than texting only (2,022 vs. 14 per 100,000 person-years across 14 states).

Hands-free cellphone use is reasonably safer than handheld cellphone use. Naturalistic driving studies have reported that the risks associated with talking on cellphones while driving are mainly from the related visual-manual distractions (e.g., dialing a number or searching for a contact). Hands-free talking has consistently been found to have little to no elevated risk in crashes or safety-critical events in naturalistic driving studies that continuously monitored drivers. It is recognized that while these studies suggest hands-free use is preferable to handheld, hands-free cellphone use does often involve some visual-manual distraction (e.g., pushing a button to accept a call). Therefore, no cellphone use while driving (handheld or hands-free) would be the safest behavior.