Despite the news coverage of distracted driving accidents and the various public awareness campaigns about the dangers of distracted driving accidents, statistics about texting and driving in Pennsylvania are still hard to gather. Texting and driving statistics are not included in the 2009 Pennsylvania Crash Facts and Statistics.*
Yet, the lack of hard numbers about texting and driving accidents in Pennsylvania does not mean that there isn’t a serious problem. Here is what we do know:
- Nationwide, approximately 5,474 people were killed and 448,000 people were injured in distracted driving accidents during 2009. Cell phone use and texting are common types of distracted driving.
- According to PennDOT, there were 12,390 distracted driving accidents in Pennsylvania during 2009.
As more traffic accident reports begin to include texting and driving as the cause of the accidents, we hope that we will be able to gather more accurate information about the texting and driving danger in Pennsylvania. In the meantime, what has been your experience? Is texting and driving a problem here in Pennsylvania?
*2009 statistics are the most available from PennDOT.
