Driver distraction crash risk

There is very httle evidence linking radio or CD players to crashes, and no known research evidence linking rrse of these devices to increased crash risk. Stutts et al. (2001) found that, of the crashes examined, 8.3 percent were the result of the driver being distracted by some everrt, object or activity inside or outside the vehicle, and 11.4 per cent of these crashes occrrrred when the driver was adjirsting the radio, audiocassette or CD player. No individiral data was reported for radio rrse. 

FIGURE 12.1 Factors that moderate the effects of distraction on driving performance and crash risk. (Reproduced from Young, K.L., Regan, M.A., and Lee J.D. 2009. Driver Distraction Theory, Effects, and Mitigation. Boca Raton, FL CRC Press. With permission.)... 

Given the implication of driver inattention as a major human crash cause in clinical in-depth analyses, and the recent demonstration of the crash risk from cell-phone related inattention (see Chapter 13), an interesting challenge in the 100-car study was to extract information on the causal roles of inattention and distraction fi-om these data without resorting to the drivers ... 

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