Cellphone-distracted crashes of novice teen drivers: Understanding associations of contributing factors for crash severity levels and cellphone usage types

Abstract

Objective As novice teen drivers are uniquely susceptible to the harmful effects of secondary activities on cellphones, 38 states and Washington D.C. have banned all types of cellphone usage for drivers younger than 18 years or in the learner/intermediate phase of driving. Despite the prevalence of such cellphone prohibitions, several surveillance studies have highlighted the persistent engagement of teenagers in cellphone-distracted driving, which increases the related crash risk. Most of the prior studies broadly consider cellphone usage as a general distraction instead of investigating different distraction-related tasks associated with cellphone use. This study analyzed the cellphone crashes of novice teenagers (aged 15–17 years) to discover the grouping of contributing factors by crash severity levels and cellphone usage types. Methods The current study collected five years (2015–2019) of related crash data from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. A manual effort was carried out to recognize the type of cellphone tasks before collision by reading the narratives of police-investigated crash reports. Association rule mining was applied to explore the associations between numerous crash attributes in multiple circumstances without relying on any predetermined hypotheses. Results The cumulative effect of cellphone distraction and no seatbelt usage is frequently visible in confirmed injury crash scenarios. Cellphone crashes of novice teenagers at intersections are strongly associated with talking/listening rather than texting/browsing/dialing and reaching for/answering/locating. The associations among environmental factors and modes of cellphone usage significantly influence the manner of collisions. Single-vehicle crashes are associated with cellphone manipulation while driving on weekends in cloudy weather, whereas sideswipe collisions are frequent in evening hours during reaching for/answering/locating the cellphones. In relation to texting/browsing/dialing, novice teenagers operating vans/SUVs are strongly associated with traffic control violations. Conclusions The findings are expected to be beneficial for policymakers and other safety officials to develop strategic planning and implementable countermeasures when dealing with cellphone-distracted novice teenagers. The association of factors identified from the analysis exhibits real-world crash scenarios critical to strengthening driver education programs to mitigate teen driver crashes. Moreover, cellphone crashes and related casualties can be reduced by eliminating or improving one of the attributes involved in the crash patterns.