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Distracted Driving Has Killed 16,000 Since 2001, Study Says

by Amar Toor on September 25, 2010 at 03:00 PM

texting while drivingMost of us probably don't need to be reminded that texting while driving can put our lives at risk, but, if you're in the mood for especially morbid statistics, here's some food for thought. A new study from the University of North Texas finds that roughly 16,000 people died from 2001 to 2007, simply because their phone distracted them behind the wheel.

As Reuters reports, the study used data on roadway mortality, cell phone use, and text messaging volume to estimate the number of distracted driving-related deaths, and found a noticeable increase in mortality among drivers under the age of 30, in particular. On the whole, though, researchers Fernando Wilson and Jim Stimpson attributed their findings to the asymptotic rise in text messaging volumes over the past few years. In 2002, for example, Americans sent an estimated 1 million texts each month. By 2008, however, that figure had risen to 110 million. And even though traffic-related deaths were down in 2009, Wilson and Stimpson estimate that the risk of distracted driving-related death increases by about 19-percent for every 1 million new cell phone users.

As sobering as these numbers may be, they come on the heels of a decidedly more encouraging report from the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Earlier this week, the NHTSA released the most recent figures on distracted driving-related fatalities, which show a marked decline since 2008. While 5,474 motorway fatalities certainly aren't anything to sniff at, it's a significant drop off from 2007, when the figure reached an all-time high of 5,917 deaths. With more states adopting bans on texting or chatting while driving, then, it appears that motorists are finally getting the message -- even after having ignored it for the better part of the last decade.

Tags: accident, car, cellphones, death, DistractedDriving, Driving, study, Texting, TextingWhileDriving

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