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Arthur Goodwin, Robert Foss, Natalie O'Brien‚ UNC- Highway Safety Research Center
Although distracted driving is of great concern to traffic safety professionals and has received a great deal of media attention in recent years, rigorous research on this issue is extremely difficult to conduct. Distraction can be difficult to define and, especially, to measure adequately. Studies estimate distraction is involved in 10 to 15 percent of all crashes (McEvoy, Stevenson & Woodward, 2007; Stutts et al., 2001). However, the true role of distraction in crashes may be much higher because distracted driving behaviors often leave little evidence at the crash scene for law enforcement officers to observe. Distracted driving is believed to be more prevalent among teenagers than adults. Two particular concerns with teenagers are the distracting effects of cell phone use, especially for text messaging, and multiple teen passengers.
This study will use video data we have already collected in an ongoing study to investigate the frequency and nature of distracted driving among newly-licensed teen drivers. The study will review and code 8,000 video clips to identify the frequency and prevalence of distracting behaviors like cell phone use, eating, grooming, loud music and interacting with passengers. With the highly unique and rich data set available for this research, we expect to provide the first quantitative estimates of the prevalence of the many distracted/distracting driving behaviors thought to be problematic for 16- and 17- year olds.
Last Revised on 07/01/2010
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