Technical Report Documentation Page
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1. Report No. |
2.Government
Accession No. |
3.Recipient’s
Catalog No. |
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4.Title
and Subtitle Volume I: Findings National Survey of Distracted and Drowsy Driving |
5.Report
Date April 2003 |
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Attitudes and Behavior:
2002 |
6.Performing
Organization Code |
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7.Author(s) Dawn Royal |
8.Performing
Organization Report No. |
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9.Performing
Organization Name and Address The Gallup Organization |
10.
Work Unit No. (TRAIS) |
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901
F Street, NW – Suite 400 Washington
DC20004 202-715-3030 |
11.Contract
or Grant No. |
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12.
Sponsoring
Agency Name and Address U.S. Department of Transportation |
13.
Type of Report and Period Covered Final Report |
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National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Office of Research and Traffic Records Washington, D.C.20590 |
14.Sponsoring
Agency Code |
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15.Supplementary
Notes Paul J. Tremont, Ph.D. was Contracting Officer’s Technical
Representative |
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16.Abstract This report represents the findings on distracted driving (including cell phone use) and drowsy driving. The data come from a pair of studies undertaken by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to better understand drivers’ behaviors and attitudes regarding speeding, unsafe driving, distracted and drowsy driving. This report, Volume I: Findings--National Survey of Distracted and Drowsy Driving reports respondent’s behaviors and attitudes on various topics related to distracted and drowsy driving. Volume II: Findings--Speeding and Unsafe Driving presents the data on those topics, while Volume III: Methods Report describes the methods used to conduct the interviews and analyze the data, and also contains the questionnaires. The data will be used to help identify the extent to which potentially distracting behaviors are undertaken by drivers and to understand the characteristics of those engaging in these behaviors so that programs can be developed to reduce these behaviors where they have been shown to be dangerous. The data come from two surveys each conducted among nationally representative samples of drivers during the Spring of 2002. Interviews were conducted with a total of 4,010 drivers in the U.S.
The survey findings show that most drivers at least occasionally engage in behaviors that draw some of their attention away from their driving task. The most common of these behaviors include general activities of talking with other passengers (81%), changing radio stations or CDs (66%), and eating or drinking while driving (49%). While it is estimated that more than a billion driving trips are made weekly by drivers engaging in each of these behaviors, fewer than one in four drivers perceive these particular activities as distracting or as making driving much more dangerous. About one in four drivers uses a cell phone while driving for either inbound (26%) or outbound calls (25%), while a similar proportion deals with children in a back seat (24%). Close to one-half of drivers perceive these behaviors to make driving much more dangerous, although drivers who use cell phones are only half as less likely as non-users to feel cell phone use is dangerous. Regarding drowsy driving, over a third, (37%) of drivers report having nodded off or falling asleep at least once since they began driving. Eight percent have done so in the past six months. Nearly half of drivers who nodded off report doing so between 9:00PM and 6:00AM.
About one quarter (26%) of
drivers have been involved in a crash in the past five years. About 3.5% of
drivers attribute a crash they’ve had in the past 5 years to their being
distracted (including 0.8% looking for something outside of their vehicle and
0.7% dealing with children), seven-tenths of 1 percent (0.7%) attribute a
crash they’ve had to drowsy driving, while one-tenth of 1 percent (0.1%) of
drivers attribute a crash they’ve had to their cell phone use. |
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17.Key
Words Driving, Attitudes, Survey, Distracted Driving, Drowsy Driving,
Cell Phone Use |
18.Distribution
Statement This report is available from the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA (703) 487-4650, and is free of charge on the NHTSA website at www.nhtsa.dot.gov. |
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19.Security
Classif. (of this report) |
20.
Security Classif. (of this page) |
21.No.
of Pages 68 |
22.Price |
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Form DOT F 1700.7(8-72) Reproduction
of completed page authorized