Do Not Disturb While Driving Day Keynote

Good morning, thank you for coming together today to focus on one of the most dangerous driving behaviors on our roads today – distraction. 

Modern life is distracting. So many things are competing for our time and attention, first and foremost being the phones in our pockets. Calls, texts, notifications, alerts, social media, apps, and more all draw our attention and demand our time and focus. While there’s a time and place for the phone, it’s never behind the wheel. 

Distracted driving is 100% preventable, yet too many people give the road far less than 100% of their attention. 

The numbers tell only a portion of the story. Our data report that 3,208 people were killed in 2024 in crashes involving a distracted driver – lives lost due to completely careless and avoidable driver behaviors. We know that’s a conservative estimate, since detection of distraction in fatal crashes is very difficult, so we believe many more fatalities are attributable to distraction. In fact, a prior NHTSA study on the economic and societal impact of motor vehicle crashes in 2019 found that distraction may have been involved in 29% of all crashes, resulting in about 10,500 fatalities. Nothing on your phone is more important than your life and the lives of others around you—anything on your phone can wait until you arrive at your destination.   

The injury numbers are even more telling, with an estimated 315,167 injured in distracted driving crashes in 2024. That breaks down to 861 people per day, 36 people per hour, and 18 people injured every 30 minutes in distracted-driving crashes. 

These numbers remind us of the real, human cost of distracted driving, but we recognize that our data sets do not fully capture the scope of the problem. Law enforcement may not be able to tell if someone was distracted at the time of a crash, and certainly no driver wants to fess up to causing a crash because they were on their phone. 

Still, we know that distracted driving remains one of the most prevalent risky driving behaviors on our roads, year after year. All of us have anecdotes of drivers we’ve seen on their phones, applying makeup, reading, eating, and more – doing everything except paying attention to the road in front of them.   

NHTSA is doubling down on strategies that reduce risky driving behaviors, empower traffic enforcement, and make our roads safer for everyone. And it will take all of us working together to make distracted driving a thing of the past. 

Earlier this year, I launched the Pathways to Safer Streets: A National Traffic Safety Action Plan, and distracted driving is one of the plan’s eight pathways.   

One of the cornerstones of our distracted driving activities is our annual Put the Phone Away or Pay high-visibility enforcement campaign. I think most, if not everyone, is aware that they shouldn’t be using their phone behind the wheel, yet far too many people still do. 

Texting behind the wheel is unlawful in every State but one, and 33 states prohibit all drivers from using handheld phones. We want to make sure drivers are aware of the dangers and the consequences. Traffic laws work when they’re enforced – we saw that during COVID when traffic enforcement dropped and fatalities increased. 

We are proud to stand with law enforcement, and when we do so, we ask every agency to increase their traffic enforcement efforts. And we need to reinforce that traffic enforcement is not mere municipal ordinance enforcement, but fundamentally critical to public safety. I would encourage you all to show your support for your local law enforcement agencies and for a return to vigorous traffic enforcement. We want to see officers enforcing traffic laws and stopping dangerous drivers before they hurt themselves or someone else, and standing as a visible reminder to all road users that they need to obey the law. 

We know it can be challenging for officers to detect whether a driver is on their phone, especially if they’re holding it below the dash. Some law enforcement agencies may station officers in a big rig to look down into the cabins of vehicles. We’ve very excited to fund activities in a number of States where agencies place a raised camera upstream of an officer with a video screen who can then pull over distracted drivers.  We support the use of this and other technology to help supplement this important, lifesaving enforcement work. 

In addition to law enforcement, we also partner with other federal agencies to spread this lifesaving message. This includes our fellow agencies at the U.S. Department of Transportation, who help amplify this message among their stakeholders.   

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration works closely with us to ensure commercial drivers are educated and understand the profound responsibility they have to drive distraction free.   

We also work closely with safety advocacy organizations, looking to reach people authentically and in a way that resonates with them. Every year we collaborate with Project Yellow Light, a scholarship program for high school and college-aged students to develop creative, peer-led public service announcements. Students speaking to one another drives the safety message home in a unique way. 

Our state highway safety offices are also vital partners, as they understand the complex and unique safety trends in their state and what messages connect most. Every state has its own unique strengths, challenges, and factors that impact their approaches to distracted driving. 

We want to harness those approaches and help states learn from one another. As part of P2SS, we recently completed a project gathering promising practices from states to prevent distracted driving. 

Rather than presenting a one-size-fits-all model for distracted driving prevention, this resource will share innovative strategies and approaches that states have used in their distracted driving programs. It will also emphasize that more than one approach is needed. While I was hoping we could get it ready for today, we’ll look forward to sharing it with you soon. 

In addition to collecting state best practices, we’re also looking at other ways to reach new audiences. For example, as part of our anti-distracted driving pathway, NHTSA is investing in research on employer-focused safe driving programs.   

We have a cooperative agreement with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute to help create new and innovative employer programs focused on seat belt use, distracted driving, and drowsy driving. They’ll be developing, demonstrating, and evaluating programs to provide toolkits and guides for you to use to influence good driving behaviors for your employees. We look forward to sharing these resources with you when complete. 

Technology may cause distraction, but it can also be a solution. Placing your phone on “do not disturb” mode is a simple thing everyone can do to remove the temptation while driving, and, for those who always feel compelled to respond immediately, these systems can automatically let the person sending a message know that they can expect a response after reaching the destination. I have it set up on my phone, and I hope you do too. 

NHTSA is very interested in learning more about how drivers interact with technology, starting with young drivers. 

We have an ongoing research study examining whether a new training for 18 and 19-year-old drivers improves their performance in a driving simulator. We’re focused on this group because they will have just moved beyond their graduated license restrictions. Part of their training focuses on reducing long glances away from the road, which happens when a driver is distracted. The training is app based, meaning we’re reaching these young drivers in a way they’re familiar with. I am very eager to see the results of this study when it concludes. 

We also want to know more about when, how, and why drivers choose to use phones and other devices behind the wheel. Most people know they shouldn’t, yet too many drivers are still tempting fate. Understanding why drivers make these choices will help us identify more solutions to prevent distracted driving. 

In addition to distractions from phones, we are interested in how new vehicle interfaces impact driver distraction. Touch screens are essentially ubiquitous in new vehicles, with voice control and smartphone integration offered as standard features in many models. We encourage all automakers to follow our Guidelines for In-Vehicle Electronic Devices, and we are in the process of updating these Guidelines to account for how newer vehicle interfaces may impact driver distraction. 

Driver monitoring systems may help detect distracted drivers and alert them to keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel. We’re wrapping up work on a new report examining distraction and the reliability of driver monitoring systems to detect distraction and drowsiness. 

We have several other studies underway, including one on effective driver monitoring system interventions. Two other studies are examining modern voice command interfaces and phone-vehicle interfaces.   

We are also in the midst of large scale naturalistic driving research on how partial driving automation affects driver distraction. As we emphasize repeatedly, advanced driver assistance systems are just that – assistance. They’re not a replacement for an alert driver ready to act at any moment. That fundamental fact about driver assistance systems does not change even as the technology evolves. 

Now, I’ve talked a lot about smartphones as a source of distraction, but they can also be a source of important safety information for researchers and Governmental agencies—they all have GPS, gyroscopes, and accelerometers and can provide valuable aggregate data on road use and driving behavior. NHTSA is a data-driven organization, and telematics offer an intriguing new source of data to identify dangerous road sections and address them through a combination of measures. We’ve noted some very promising use cases. 

Excessive speeding, for example, is one area where telematics may come into play. We are exploring the potential of telematics and connected-vehicle data to identify high-risk driving zones and develop countermeasures. 

Also, we currently are researching how the availability of mobile telematics data can be used to identify and address trends on distraction, as well as other risky behaviors such as swerving and hard braking. 

Distraction is an immensely nuanced topic and one that requires extensive research and multifaceted solutions. NHTSA is committed to using every tool and resource at our disposal to address risky driving behaviors like distraction that cost us far too many lives every single year. And we’re committed to working with all of you, our partners in safety, because this issue is far too complex for any one of us to solve alone. 

We want everyone to remember that a call, text, or notification can all wait until they’re safely at their destination. I’d like everyone to go ahead and set their phone to go into Do Not Disturb mode while driving. Take the temptation out of the picture entirely. Brands may use different names like Driving Focus or Driving Mode, but those features are there and waiting for you to turn them on. 

It takes just a second to change your phone’s settings, and that second can save a life. 

Thank you again for organizing this important event, and please drive home safely.