Fast And Safe :: Facts & Myths - Cell Phones

Data Source: CELL PHONE USE WHILE DRIVING, Summary of Research and Analysis, NZ Land Transport Safety Authority, September 2003.

Year	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	Total
1. In-vehicle distractions resulting in fatal or injury crashes
Passengers	113	132	137	132	126	113	97	93	89	117	1149
Insect / Animal	21	30	32	25	19	8	16	14	17	19	201
Radio/CD	38	35	33	55	36	39	40	35	53	37	401
Reaching/Adjusting/Looking for object	82	82	105	94	65	78	80	93	75	106	860
Cigarettes	17	26	8	14	11	12	16	14	15	16	149
Eating	5	8	6	13	8	12	2	11	18	14	97
Other	36	34	46	36	32	25	14	1	3	1	228
Cell Phones						16	16	27	46	45	150
Other Telecommunication Devices	4	12	14	7	7	2	4	1	5	6	62
Total In-vehicle	316	359	381	376	304	305	285	289	321	361	3297

2. Distractions resulting in fatal crashes
All Distractions						22	20	22	16	21	101
All In-Vehicle						4	8	8	8	5	33
Cell Phones						0	2	2	5	2	11
Other Telecommunication Devices						0	2	0	0	0	2
Total Fatal						435	433	383	395	364	2010

3. Distractions resulting in injury crashes
All Distractions						719	673	663	683	848	3586
All In-Vehicle						280	267	256	265	312	1380
Cell Phones						16	14	25	41	43	139
Other Telecommunication Devices						2	2	1	5	6	16
Total Injury						8334	8010	7447	8470	9798	42059

4. Distractions resulting in Fatal + Injury
All Distractions						741	693	685	699	869	3687
All In-Vehicle						284	275	264	273	317	1413
Cell Phones						16	16	27	46	45	150
Other Telecommunication Devices						2	4	1	5	6	18
Total Injury + Fatal						8769	8443	7830	8865	10162	44069

5. Discrepancies between Table 1 and Table 4 (indicates multiple in-vehicle distractions?)
All In-Vehicle						-21	-10	-25	-48	-44	-148

6. NZ Cell Phone Connections
Total Conections	100,000	146,000	241,000	378,000	491,000	582,000	791,000	1,542,000	2,288,000	2,462,000

7. Percentage Tables
Cell phones in Fatal Crashes						0.00%	0.46%	0.52%	1.27%	0.55%	0.55%
Cell phones in Injury Crashes						0.18%	0.19%	0.34%	0.52%	0.44%	0.34%
Cell phone Fatal & Injury Crashes per Million Cell phone connections						27.5	20.2	17.5	20.1	18.3