As US traffic fatalities fall, distracted drivers told to 'put the phone away or pay'

An estimated 40,990 people died in traffic crashes last year, according to data released Monday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Though the number of miles driven in 2023 increased to 67.5 billion, the number of traffic fatalities decreased by 3.6%, according to Sophie Shulman, deputy administrator for the NHTSA. Still, Shulman said the country "bears a significant burden from distracted driving crashes, which cost us collectively $98 billion in 2019 alone."

"We want everyone to know: put the phone away or pay," she said. "Pay can mean a ticket or points on your license and it can also mean pay the ultimate price - deadly crash that takes your life or the life of someone else on the road."

More than 3,300 people died and nearly 290,000 were injured in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2022, about 20% of those killed were outside the vehicles, Shulman said. She said that's likely an undercount because people may not want to admit to using their phones prior to a crash, and it can be difficult for law enforcement to determine if they were doing so.

Almost every state prohibits texting while driving and more than half have banned hand-held cellphone use, Shulman said. A 2021 study conducted by researchers in Ohio, North Carolina and Canada and published in the journal Epidemiology found that more comprehensive bans on hand-held cellphone use were associated with fewer driver fatalities, unlike bans that only prohibit texting or calling while driving. States with more comprehensive bans may prohibit holding or using a cellphone altogether, while others list specific tasks including using social media, internet browsing and playing games.

Robert McCullough, chief of the Baltimore County Police Department, said his department is working to address distracted driving through "focused enforcement, education and training." Several times a year, he said, police work with the Maryland Department of Transportation and other law enforcement agencies to divert traffic on a specific roadway so that an officer in unmarked vehicle can spot drivers using their phones.

McCullough noted taking your eyes off the road for as little as five seconds while driving 55 miles per hour is "like driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed."

"I say to America, put down the phones, the life you save may be your own," he said.

Alan Morales, a junior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, and co-president of Students Against Destructive Decisions, said young people are particularly vulnerable to distracted driving, citing NHTSA data from 2021, which he said found the youngest drivers represented 16% of all those distracted by a cell phone during a fatal crash.

Morales' said his organization partnered with the NHTSA on a project to raise awareness of this issue. The administration also launched two ad campaigns in English and Spanish to discourage drivers from using cellphones, the release of which coincided with the start of Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

Joel Feldman, whose daughter was killed in a 2009 crash involving a distracted driver, urged parents to model good behavior for younger drivers. Feldman, founder of EndDD.org, said if drivers think more about the thousands killed in these kinds of crashes each year before taking their eyes off the road, they may be discouraged from doing so.

"And if we think about those folks who have killed while driving distracted, good decent people who they'll never be the same, we won't drive distracted. We don't want to be like them," Feldman said. "So for Casey, and for all those who've been killed by distracted driving we can do this. We must do this."

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