Besides texting, here's what else we do on our smart phones while driving
The American motorist is also obsessed with checking Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and video chatting while behind the wheel of a car, according to a study released today by mobile provider AT&T.
AT&T - which started the It Can Wait campaign to combat distracted driving - and Braun Research polled 2,067 American motorists age 16-65 who have smartphones and drive at least once per day. What they found is that smarter phones make dumber drivers.
According to the study, 70% of respondents say they engage in smartphone activities while driving. 61% say they text while driving and 33% say they send emails while driving.
In terms of social media, 27% of drivers enjoy checking Facebook while driving, while 14% check Instagram and Twitter, and 11% check Snapchat.
Other smart phone activities behind the wheel include internet browsing (28%), taking selfies (17%), and video chatting (10%).
"One in 10 say they do video chat while driving. I don't even have words for that," Lori Lee, AT&T's senior executive vice president for global marketing, told the New York Times.
Of those polled, 22% cite addiction as the reason for why they use their phone behind the wheel, and 27% believe they can do it safely while driving.
According to info from the Center for Disease Control, 3,328 people were killed in 2012 due to accidents involving a distracted driver. According to Distracted.gov, the official government website on distracted driving, 660,000 motorists at any given moment are using cellphones or manipulating electronic devices while behind the wheel of a car. In addition, people in their 20s make up 27% of all distracted drivers.
The National Safety Council, a nonprofit organization, says that texting while driving accounted for 6 percent of all crashes in 2014, up one percent from 2013.
Although 46 states currently have laws banning texting while driving, the poll notes that 62% of drivers said they still like to keep their smartphones within easy reach when they are behind the wheel.