Contents:
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Kenneth H. Beck
Technical Director:
Dr. Min Qi Wang
The contribution of the following organizations is acknowledged:
Maryland Highway Safety Office
This web site was developed by the
Department of Public and Community Health, University of Maryland, with the support of the
Maryland Department of Transportation's State Highway Administration and the Maryland Highway Safety Office
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Driving distractions are anything that diverts a driver's attention away from the road. Distractions can be placed into the following two categories: 
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• Teen passengers
• Adjusting the radio
• Changing CDs/tapes
• Cellular phones
• Eating/drinking
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• Adjusting heat or A/C
• Smoking
• Personal grooming
• Lost in thought
• Fatigue/drowsiness
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• Traffic accidents
• Advertising/billboards
• Pedestrians
• Construction
• Shops |
• Police activity
• People in other vehicles |
- Adding one passenger doubles the risk of a fatal crash among 16-17 year old drivers (Chen et al., 2000).
- Adding three passengers increases the risk of a fatal crash by five times among 16-17 year old drivers (Chen et al., 2000).
- Drivers under the age of 20 are more likely than older drivers to be distracted while adjusting a radio, cassette or CD player. (Stutts et al., 2001)
- Talking on a cell phone while you are driving quadruples the risk of having a car collision. (Redelmeier & Tibshirani, 1997)
- A survey of teen drivers at one Maryland school found that although 93 percent chat with other passengers and 60 percent talk on the phone while driving, only 38 percent believed that teen drivers have too many driving distractions. (Avigan & Slater, 2002).
- Teens are among the most vulnerable to a drowsiness-related highway crash. NHTSA estimates that 40,000 injuries and 1550 fatalities can be attributable to drowsy driving annually. (NIH, 1999)
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- A recent survey of teen drivers in Maryland found that:
- 35% had been distracted by friends/passengers, and
- 56% played music in the car too loudly (Beck et al., 2001).
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