Addressing distraction

• Over the period 2004–2008, distraction contributed to at least 10 percent of fatal crashes and 9 percent of serious injury crashes.  In 2008, these crashes resulted in 243 serious injuries and 42 deaths.

How can we reduce the number of crashes caused by distraction?

Common distractions include passengers, cellphones and eating and drinking. The government has confirmed it will ban hand-held cell phone use while driving from 1 November 2009.

Raise public awareness and improve education
Information on preventing distraction could be made more widely available and specifically added to road safety education. Distraction could then be included in driver testing.

Download the full section on areas of medium concern (PDF v7.0, 503kb)

Download the full discussion document (PDF v7.0, 2.50mb)