Distracted Driving Dangerous in the PIA Western Alliance States

We love our smartphones. That love — however — comes with a price.

A statistic released by the National Safety Council (NSC) says cellphone distraction leads to 1.6 million auto crashes a year. Close to 25% of all auto crashes in the U.S. today are caused by drivers that are texting.

Worse, 3,142 people died because of distracted driving in 2020. The 2021 stats aren’t out but that number is likely to be higher. Much of that distracted driving is smartphone use caused.

“Driving and cell phone conversations both require a great deal of thought,” the NSC says. “When doing them at the same time, your brain is unable to do either well.”

The other distractions that are dominant among drivers are eating, grooming and conversation with a passenger or passengers.

Zutobi is a driver education resource. The online company took a look at a bunch of different government reports and came up with the 10 states where distracted driving is the most dangerous.

Three PIA Western Alliance states — New Mexico (1), Washington (4) and Idaho (10) — are in their top-10:

1. New Mexico

Distracted driving fatal crashes 2019: 137

Total fatal crashes 2019: 368

Crude rate: 37.2

2. New Jersey

3. Hawaii

4. Washington

Distracted driving fatal crashes 2019: 109

Total fatal crashes 2019: 494

Crude rate: 22.1

5. Virginia

6. Kansas

7. Louisiana

8. Illinois

9. Kentucky

10. Idaho

Distracted driving fatal crashes 2019: 30

Total fatal crashes 2019: 201

Crude rate: 14.9