New York City and New Jersey Drivers Are The Most Distracted

A recent study says that drivers in New York and New Jersey are among the most distracted in the country.

A recent study by location-sharing app Life360 shows that drivers in the New York metropolitan area are among the most distracted in the country. The study reveals that New Jersey drivers use their phones more frequently than drivers in any other state, while New York City drivers come in second for phone usage when drivers were ranked by metropolitan areas. The findings reveal the extent of the distracted driving problem, which has been blamed for a surge in fatal motor vehicle accidents in recent years.

Ranking New York and New Jersey drivers

When ranked according to state, New York and New Jersey drivers are among the most distracted in the country. New Jersey drivers were shown to use their phone once every 4.7 miles, more frequently than drivers in any other state. Perhaps unsurprisingly, New Jersey also has one of the highest crash rates per miles driven in the country.

As a state, New York drivers were ranked the fourth-most distracted in the country, behind just New Jersey, Florida, and Mississippi. However, when just cities are ranked, New York City ranks as the second-worst in the country for distracted driving, behind only Miami. Newark was ranked as having the seventh-most distracted drivers. In general, drivers on the East coast were far more distracted than those on the West coast.

Distracted driving the top safety concern

Given the high rates of distracted driving, it should come as no surprise that another recent study also found that distracted driving is the top safety concern for drivers, according to Forbes. That study, conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, showed that 58 percent of drivers consider talking on a cellphone while driving to be dangerous, while 78 percent described texting and driving as a significant danger.

Despite most drivers clearly knowing the dangers of cellphone-use behind the wheel, the study also showed that the number of people who regularly or frequently talk on a phone while driving has soared by 46 percent since 2013. About 45 percent of drivers surveyed said they had read an email or text while behind the wheel.

As the Life360 study points out, distracted driving kills an estimated 3,000 people every year and distracted drivers are four times more likely to speed than undistracted drivers and 40 percent more likely to hard brake.

Help for accident victims

Distracted driving has made roads and highways increasingly dangerous, especially, as the above article shows, in the New York City area. For those who have been hurt in a distracted driving crash, reaching out to a personal injury attorney as soon as possible is important. An attorney can show clients what claims they may be able to pursue and help them fight for the compensation that they could ultimately be entitled to.