A recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study evaluates the effectiveness of behavioral interventions to reduce distracted driving. Study: A randomized trial of behavioral interventions yielding sustained reductions in distracted driving . Image Credit: Andrey_Popov / Shutterstock.
com Risks involved in distracted driving In the United States, over 3,000 deaths and 400,000 injuries occur each year due to distracted driving. A significant number of distracted driving cases has been attributed to phone use by drivers between the ages of 15 and 24 years. Naturalistic studies have shown that all phone use is not equally risky.
Although both handheld and hands-free phone use promotes cognitive distraction, handheld phone use is associated with greater visual and physical distraction. Researchers estimate that handheld phone use increases the risk of accidents by 2-12%, whereas hand-free phone use does not appear to increase the risk of a crash. Considering these findings, lawmakers in 27 U.
S. states have banned the use of handheld phones while driving. Implementation of this rule has been challenging, as some drivers adopted riskier approaches to evade detection, such as holding the phone lower during use.
Usage-based insurance (UBI) policies have shown positive effects in reducing hand-held phone use while driving. This program evaluates a driver’s handheld phone use and other risky driving behaviors for one month. The driver’s upcoming policy is estimated bas.