Distracted while driving? You're not unique

"Everybody does something distracting while they're driving, at least some of the time," says Peter Kissinger, President of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. "Our recent study looked at drivers' behavior and found that the most frequent distraction was talking to a passenger, but people also spent a lot of time eating, drinking, and reaching for things in the vehicle."

The AAA Foundation and AAA held a joint press conference on this topic on August 6 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Speakers included Robert Darbelnet, President of AAA, Peter Kissinger, President of the AAA Foundation, Dr. Jane Stutts, a researcher at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, and Col. James Champagne, a former Louisiana state trooper and the Vice Chair of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission.

"Distraction has been a problem ever since we started driving," Kissinger said in his remarks. "It continues to grow because there is more traffic, more congestion, and more things to distract us. Recently there has been tremendous attention placed on distractions from cell phones and in-vehicle technologies. But what about other kinds of distraction?"

The AAA Foundation study found that the most common distraction was talking to a passenger, with infants being particularly distracting. Eating and drinking were also common, as was reaching for something inside the vehicle. Less common behaviors in the sample, though not less distracting, included using a cell phone, grooming, and reading or writing.

The AAA Foundation's home page has the full study as well as a press release and a fact sheet.

Also: The Role of Driver Distraction in Traffic Crashes: http://www.aaafoundation.org/projects/index.cfm?button=distraction

A recently compiled powerpoint presentation incorporating the results from both studies may be viewed at http://www.aaafoundation.org/multimedia/index.cfm?button=presentations

Other on-line sources for information about distracted driving:

Strayer, D. L. and Johnston, W. A. Driven to distraction: Dual-task studies of simulated driving and conversing on a cellular phone. Psychological Science 2001, 12, 462-466. (PDF):
http://www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCognitionLab/PS-Reprint.pdf

Canadian study on cell phone use:
http://www.icbc.com/Inside_ICBC/january2001news.html

"The Disconnect Between Law and Policy Analysis, A Case Study of Drivers and Cell Phones" Brookings Institution, Washington DC:
http://www.aei.brookings.org/admin/pdffiles/working_02_07.pdf

"Inattention Blindness":
http://cartalk.cars.com/About/Drive-Now/inattention-study.pdf

NHTSA: National Survey Of Distracted And Drowsy Driving Attitudes And Behaviors: 2000
http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/survey-distractive03/summary.htm

Information on driver distraction from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:
http://www.hwysafety.org/srpdfs/sr3707.pdf

The Internet Distraction Forum final report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-13/FinalInternetForumReport.pdf
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departments/nrd-13/DriverDistraction.html