Distraction by Cell Phones and Texting

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is committed to reducing fatalities and injuries due to crashes on the Nation’s roadways. NHTSA works daily to help prevent all types of crashes and reduce their attendant costs, both human and financial. NHTSA approaches distracted driving as a critical national safety problem and addresses it by applying “the four E’s”—education, engineering, enforcement and emergency medical services. This report: defines distracted driving; provides facts about distraction crashes; reports what the public thinks about distracted driving; and explains the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) response to this safety problem.