Talking to death — texts, phones kill 16,000: study

Drivers distracted by talking or texting on cell phones killed an estimated 16,000 people from 2001 to 2007, US researchers reported on Thursday.

The estimate, one of the first scientific attempts to quantify how many people have died in accidents caused specifically by mobile-phone distractions, also suggests that a growing number of these drivers are under 30.

"Our results suggested that recent and rapid increase in texting volumes have resulted in thousands of additional road fatalities in the United States," Fernando Wilson and Jim Stimpson of University of North Texas Health Science Centre wrote in the American Journal of Public Health.

Wilson and Stimpson used details on road deaths from each state, on cell-phone ownership, and data on text message volume from the Federal Communications Commission.

They also got reports from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on deaths attributable to distracted driving.

"Roughly in 2001-2002, messaging volumes have increased by several 100%," Wilson said in a telephone interview. "In 2002, one million messages were sent every month; this rose to 110 million in 2008.

"Since 2001, our model predicts that about 16,000 people have died, and we attribute this to the increase in messaging volume in the United States.

"Not just talking on cell phone, but using even a hands-free device can also distract a driver," he said.

"Messaging and using so-called smart phones that provide e-mail access and other distracting applications, however, takes the problem to a new level,"  Wilson added.

US traffic deaths are down. The transportation department said they hit their lowest level since the mid-1950s in 2009 at 33,963.

But for every one million new cell-phone subscribers, Wilson and Stimpson estimated a 19% rise in deaths due to distracted driving.

"Distracted deaths as a share of all road fatalities increased from 10.9% to 15.8% from 1999 to 2008, and much of the increase occurred after 2005," they wrote.