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Distraction common among local drivers
YOUNGSTOWN
The Eastgate Regional Council of Governments hopes its finding that 11 percent of the Mahoning Valley drivers it observed were distracted calls people’s attention to the need to concentrate on their driving to promote public safety.
“Think about what you’re actually doing. You want to focus on driving. That’s your main task,” said Justin Mondok, an Eastgate transportation planner and the lead researcher in the council’s study.
“The more that we can bring awareness to it, the better,” Ken Sympson, the council’s transportation director, said of distracted driving.
“It just takes a second of distraction and looking away from that road to cause tragic consequences,” said Bethaney Krzys, Eastgate’s safety program manager.
“Distracted driving plays a big part in crashes. It’s under-reported,” Krzys said. “The [law enforcement] officer cannot always identify what caused the crash,” and a driver involved in it may be reluctant to specify the cause, she noted.
Sixteen percent of Mahoning Valley drivers between age 26 and 40 were observed to be distracted in the council’s recently released study.
Among drivers age 16 to 25, 14 percent were distracted; and among those in the 41-60 age range, it was 11 percent.
Only 3 percent of drivers 61 or older were recorded as distracted in the study.
Mondok surmised that the lower distraction rate among older drivers stems in part from their being less likely to be constant users of electronic devices that contribute to distracted driving.
Sympson said older people may simply be wiser about their driving habits, likely saying to themselves: “Maybe I shouldn’t look at that text because it’s really not that important while I go through this intersection.”
The study by the Youngstown-based metropolitan planning organization was based on visual observation of 6,476 drivers, about evenly divided between men and women, last fall at eight locations in Mahoning and Trumbull counties with moderate to heavy traffic.
Average daily vehicle counts at these locations ranged from 10,425 on Raccoon Road in Austintown to 35,440 on U.S. Route 224 in Boardman.
Of the total of 6,476 drivers, 717, or 11 percent, were distracted, Eastgate reported.
The percentages of distracted drivers observed in the local study are consistent with the nationally reported percentages, Mondok said.
The observers watched the drivers while their vehicles were moving in the curb lane nearest to the observers over two-hour periods between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. or 2 to 4 p.m. at two locations in Boardman and one location each in Youngstown, Austintown, Girard, Hubbard, Niles and Warren.
Drivers’ sex, age group and type of distraction, if any, were noted as either a cellphone, another device, or food or drink, or some other form of distraction.
Fifty-two percent of all observed distractions were caused by cellphones; 35 percent by other devices, including mp3s and GPS units; 9 percent by food or drink; and 4 percent by other items.
The category of other items included searching the car, reaching into the back seat, reading, listening to headphones, adjusting hair or makeup, using a laptop computer or having a dog sitting on the driver’s lap.
The highest overall distraction rate was 17 percent among women age 26 to 40, Eastgate reported.
Some of the study’s observation points were in shopping districts with heavy traffic.
Eleven percent of all drivers on U.S. Route 224 near Hitchcock Road in Boardman were distracted.
There, 19 percent of female drivers between 16 and 25 were distracted, making them the most-distracted group.
On U.S. Route 422, near state Route 46 in Niles, 12 percent of all drivers were distracted, with the most-distracted group there being women age 26 to 40 at 21 percent.
Mondok noted that the Eastgate researchers actually observed the drivers in action, rather than relying on drivers to self-report their behaviors in a survey, as was done in other distracted driving studies.
Eastgate plans to continue this study this summer to help agencies concerned with transportation safety better understand local driving habits.
Complete results of the initial local study can be found at eastgatecog.org.
Nationally, 3,154 people were killed and an estimated 424,000 were injured in crashes involving distracted driving in 2013, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Ten percent of fatal crashes, 18 percent of injury crashes and 16 percent of all police-reported crashes that year were distraction-related, NHTSA said.