Texting Top Driver Distraction, New Va. Tech Study Finds

This story appears in the Aug. 3 print edition of Transport Topics.

Truckers who text from the driver’s seat are about 23 times more likely to have a crash, or at least a close encounter, than are drivers who are watching the road, according to a Virginia university study for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, the study revealed that texting was, by a wide margin, the most hazardous driver distraction.

“Texting was, on its own, by far the most dangerous thing,” said Dr. Rich Hanowski, director of VTTI’s Center for Truck and Bus Safety in Blacksburg, Va.

Fumbling around in the cab for an electronic device was next on the list of dangerous distractions, followed by dialing a cell phone. Having a cell phone conversation, while less risky than reaching for or dialing the phone, still increased the odds of a crash, VTTI said.

The common thread linking the most distracting behaviors was failure to watch the road.

A driver sending a text message from a cell phone spends more time watching the handset than watching the road, accounting for the high-risk factor of texting, Hanowski told Transport Topics.

The VTTI study was the first to observe texting truckers on revenue runs. Rather than collecting data from a driving simulator, as other studies have done, VTTI used in-cab cameras and truck-mounted sensors to monitor drivers and their vehicles on revenue-producing runs, Hanowski told TT.

Most of the drivers monitored were employed by “bigger fleets,” Hanowski noted. Participation in the study was voluntary, and drivers were aware that they were being monitored, VTTI said. The project was funded by FMCSA.

“[Transportation] Secretary [Ray] LaHood is extremely concerned about distracted driving, whether it’s from texting, talking on the cell phone or eating while behind the wheel,” said FMCSA spokeswoman Candice Tolliver. “He has spoken out repeatedly on this issue and the Department of Transportation is taking a hard look at these results.”

The Virginia Tech study took place between 2005 and 2007. During that time, VTTI monitored 203 drivers operating 55 trucks. The study raked in data from about 3 million miles of real-world driving.

To determine the risk multiplier associated with distracting behaviors, VTTI screened for “safety events” including “crashes, near-crashes, and other kind of performance errors, such as unintentional lane deviations,” Hanowski said.

VTTI then reviewed in-cab video footage, captured a few seconds before each “safety event,” to see what drivers were doing immediately before the incidents in question.

A truck safety watchdog group applauded the VTTI study.

“In light of the Virginia Tech study, showing just how dangerous texting while driving a truck is, we’d like to see immediate action to prevent truckers from texting while driving,” Bill Redding, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Truck Safety Coalition, said July 29.

The same day, senators on Capitol Hill introduced a bill that would pressure states to ban texting while driving or forgo federal funds for transportation projects.

The bill, advanced by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), was cosponsored by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.); Mary Landrieu (D-La.); and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.).

Currently, 13 states and Washington, D.C., have laws on the books — or pending — that ban texting while driving. In addition, five states and the District of Columbia restrict driver cell phone use to hands-free configurations.

In a survey conducted last year by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, about 16% of 2,757 respondents admitted to reading or sending a text message while driving.