It is known that driver inattention is a major cause of traffic accidents, injuries and deaths.
Out of all safety-critical events in traffic it has been estimated that over 30% are caused by driver inattention.
Almost 80 percent of all crashes and 65 percent of all near-crashes involved visual inattention in a 100-car naturalistic field study on the topic.
As a cause of visual inattention by secondary activities in these safety-critical events the use of a mobile device was by far the leading cause by at least 30%.
Drivers engaging in visually complex tasks have a three-times higher near-crash/crash risk than drivers who pay attention to the road ahead.
Field studies have shown that drivers are trying to keep diverging glance durations within safe limits but that often their allocation of visual attention is inefficient and unsafe – drivers take a look at a wrong place at a wrong time and/or look at a wrong place for too long given the visual demands of the traffic situation.
Lead car scenarios with short following headways, in particular, are high-risk situations when combined with distracted driving.
The estimated costs of distracted driving in USA alone are over 24 billion USD per year.
Fitch, G. M., Soccolich, S. A., Guo, F., McClafferty, J., Fang, Y., Olson, R. L., et al. (2013). The Impact of Hand-Held And Hands-Free Cell Phone Use on Driving Performance and Safety-Critical Event Risk. DOT HS 811 757. USA: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Dingus, T. A., Klauer, S.G., Neale, V. L., Petersen, A., Lee, S. E., Sudweeks, J., et al. (2006). The 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study: Phase II – Results of the 100-Car Field Experiment. DOT HS 810 593. USA: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Klauer, S.G., Dingus, T. A., Neale, V. L., Sudweeks, J.D., and Ramsey, D.J. (2006). The Impact of Driver Inattention On Near-Crash/Crash Risk: An Analysis Using the 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study Data. DOT HS 810 594. USA: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
