Distracted Driving

More than 270 million people have cell phone subscriptions in the United States today. Around 80 percent of drivers have admitted to talking on their phones while driving, a behavior that is estimated to increase crash risk fourfold.

Within just a few years, cell phones and PDAs have become seemingly indispensable parts of our lives. But 50+ peer-reviewed studies have shown that using phones while driving is dangerous and results in hundreds of thousands of crashes and thousands of deaths each year.

The National Safety Council aims to change this trend and prevent crashes, injuries and deaths. Feel free to visit our resources dedicated to employers, key research, public education and state laws for the many ways in which we hope to make our roads safer.

Distracted Driving Resources

NEW: Updated Cell Phone Policy Kit for Employers

This free kit for employers includes many ready-to-use materials to build leadership support in your company for a cell phone policy. Communicate to employees the crash risks and the need for a policy. Provides sample policies and numerous turnkey communications.

A FREE download you can use immediately.

Employer Policies – Employers can make an immediate positive impact to promote safety and protect their employees. Get access to resources to help you not only build management support for a cell phone policy, but learn how to communicate the policy to employees. Learn more>>

Key Research – Find links to research focused on cell phones and text messaging, including epidemiological, simulator and naturalistic studies; public opinion surveys; prevalence estimates; leading government and other institution reports; presentations from conferences and other events. Learn more>>

Public Education – NSC is involved in many education campaigns to inform the American public about the dangers of using cell phones while driving. We offer a thorough list of links and communications for you to share with colleagues, employees, family, friends, neighbors, and so on. Learn more>>

State Law – It's difficult to change behavior even when people know the risks. Laws plus visible enforcement are effective at reducing crashes, saving lives and making our driving culture safer. Visit our resources for state laws and advocacy. Learn more>>

Tell Us Your Story

Have you experienced a crash or close call due to cell phones or texting? Are you advocating for state laws? Are you taking action in your workplace? Tell us about it and be included in our Million Acts of Safety.

The NSC is on a mission to:

Alert the American public that different distractions have different levels of crash risk -- Talking on a cell phone and sending text messages are much higher risk activities than most other actions that drivers do while driving. This is because talking on cell phones occurs for longer periods of time and involves more people.
Lead a change in our nation’s cultural norms – We hope that people come to view cell phone conversations and text messaging while driving as unsafe and socially unacceptable. We're calling for legislative bans and employer policies as major steps in a long-term process to educate Americans of the risk and change our driving culture.