College Students Use Cell Phones While Driving More Frequently Than Found in Government Study

Abstract

Objective Cell phone use while driving is hazardous; it quadruples the risk of a collision and multiplies the risk of a fatality nine-fold. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 8% of young drivers and 5% of all drivers use cell phones while driving. Participants and Methods The authors trained graduate student volunteers to observe the daytime cell phone use of 3,650 drivers leaving the student exits of college parking structures at a large university. Results The student observers recorded a cell phone usage rate of 11.1%, which was significantly higher than that seen in the National Occupant Protection Use Survey (p < .00001). Female drivers were 1.51 times more likely to be using a cell phone while driving than were men (12.9% vs 8.6%, p < .001), and drivers with passengers were 0.15 times more likely to drive while telephoning than were solo drivers (1.8% vs 12.1%, p < .001). Conclusions The authors offer suggestions for possible interventions to reduce this hazardous behavior.