U.S. Drivers Are Distracted More Than Half the Time They're Behind the Wheel

Until sometime in the early 2000s, the U.S. had fewer traffic fatalities per mile traveled than most developed countries. That’s changed. If we’re measuring by road traffic deaths per 100,000 people, the U.S. is currently ranked 17th out of 29 high-income nations for which data is available. By road fatalities, America loses out to the United Kingdom (11.4 deaths versus 3.7). It loses out to Canada (6.8). It loses out to the Philippines (9.1) and Brunei (6.8).

What’s changed? Researchers with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) have a theory: American drivers have simply gotten worse at driving. In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month, the scientists report that people behind the wheels of passenger vehicles are distracted more than 50 percent of the time. That doubles their risk of a crash. Nearly 70 percent of the crashes the researchers analyzed involved “some type of observable distraction,” they wrote.