Nearly 200,000 traffic stops were reviewed during the five-month period, DPS said, and out of more than 10,000 total crashes, 1,160 were related to distracted driving.
Of those wrecks attributed to distracted driving, DPS found that:
♦ 255 wrecks were caused by outside distractions outside the vehicle, a broad category that includes other drivers and sign spinners.
♦ 130 collisions were caused when drivers were reaching for an object in their vehicle.
♦ 127 wrecks were attributed to cell-phone use, which includes making and receiving phone calls and text messages.
The collection period also looked at more than 8,000 stops that DPS officers made on vehicles in which the drivers appeared distracted because they exhibited behaviors that included swerving and driving slowly. Officers later determined that cell-phone use caused the distractions in the bulk of those stops — about 2,500 — while 1,900 were attributed to other people inside the vehicles and nearly 1,800 were caused by outside distractions.
“We’re looking at distracted driving not just with cell-phone use,” said Officer Carrick Cook, a DPS spokesman. “The numbers show that outside distractions are so significant. That should act as a reminder that distracted driving is not just cell-phone use, it’s everything.”
Officers took the lessons from the collection period and applied them to a concentrated effort this month to educate drivers about those dangers, Cook said.
During the five-day period (April 10-15), nearly 600 enforcement actions were related to distracted driving. The majority of the incidents involved cell phones, followed by other occupants and outside distractions respectively, according to the report.
Investigators also studied 15 crashes that were related to distracted driving, including seven wrecks that resulted from external distractions, five that came through cell-phone use and three that were attributed to other passengers distracting the driver, according to the report.
During this month’s campaign, the majority of people stopped were issued warnings instead of citations, according to the report. .
