Analysis of nearly 17,000 crashes shows distracted driving is far more widespread than official reports suggest

Cellphone use behind the wheel appears to be far more common than official police records indicate. A new study by the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that digital data recorded cellphone use immediately before crashes at least seven times more often than police reports did.

Researchers examined nearly 17,000 real-world crashes that occurred between 2021 and 2024 in four U.S. states. Rather than relying only on driver statements or survey responses, they compared anonymous telematics data from safe-driving apps with official police records.

The apps could identify several forms of cellphone activity during the moments before a crash. They recorded phone calls, touching or moving the device, and cases in which the phone screen remained unlocked. In the 30 seconds before a collision, cellphone use appeared in 7% of single-vehicle crashes and 8% of two-vehicle crashes. Police reports mentioned cellphone use in fewer than 1% of those cases.

The figures remained troubling when the researchers narrowed the window to the final 10 seconds. Phone use appeared in 4% of single-vehicle crashes and 5% of two-vehicle collisions. The study also found hundreds of cases in which drivers actively operated their screens just before impact, although such incidents were extremely rare in police records. Across the nearly 17,000 crashes, the police reports and digital records matched in only three cases.

Researchers also examined passive phone use. An unlocked screen does not necessarily mean a driver was doing something prohibited, since it could reflect navigation. But it could also indicate that the driver was watching a video, reading, or browsing social media. In a separate IIHS study, nearly one in four drivers acknowledged watching videos on a phone while driving at least once during the previous month. Researchers said looking away from the road for just two seconds can double the risk of a crash or near miss. They stressed, however, that digital records alone cannot determine who caused a crash or prove that phone use led to it.