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.