Paying Attention to Distractions

With California considering restrictions on cell phone use in cars, the driver distraction debate is heating up again. How big a problem is talking on the phone, compared to other popular on-the-road activities, such as CD switching, map reading, cheeseburger eating, nose picking, daydreaming, hair combing, and child scolding? In a study by the California Highway Patrol, The New York Times reports,

driver distraction or inattention was found to be a factor in 5,677 of the 491,083 traffic collisions reported in the state from Jan. 1, 2002, to June 30, 2002. The top four distraction-related accidents were connected to these: cellphone use, 11 percent; radios and CD players, 9 percent; children, 4 percent; and eating, 3 percent.

Yet the same article says "the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 25 percent of traffic accidents involve some form of driver distraction." That is more than 20 times the rate found in the California study. It seems clear that official accident records (in California, at least) do not reflect all the distractions that contribute to crashes–only the most conspicuous.