Virginia Tech cell phone research on driving distraction

New data from Virginia Tech Transportation Institute provides insight into cell phone use and driving distraction

Combined, these studies continuously observed drivers for more than 6 million miles of driving. VTTI’s studies that included light vehicle drivers and truck drivers, manual manipulation of phones such as dialing and texting of the cell phone lead to a substantial increase in the risk of being involved in a safety-critical event such as a crash or near-crash. However, talking or listening increased risk much less for light vehicles and not at all for trucks. Text messaging on a cell phone was associated with the highest risk of all cell phone related tasks.