Distracted driving reaches ‘crisis’ level, officials say at Virginia summit

State and local leaders are gathered in Richmond earlier this month for Drive Smart Virginia’s 11th Annual Distracted Driving Summit, discussing strategies for changing motorist behavior to reduce distracted driving incidents.

“We’re starting to realize we’re having a major epidemic with distracted driving, and it’s killing people,” said Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Gerald F. Lackey.

New research suggests that talking on a hand-held phone while driving is as dangerous as driving with a blood-alcohol content of .08, which is the minimum level that defines drunk driving in most U.S. states. Distracted driving accounts for 17% of all traffic crashes in Virginia, resulting in 61 fatalities and 7,200 injuries, as well as 21,528 crashes in 2023.

“Think about the progress we made with seat belt usage,” said Rick Birt, director of the Washington, D.C. Highway Safety Office. “We started out with no seat belts. Now, over 90% of individuals changed their behavior, and are buckling up.”

One way to address the issue is to treat distracted driving like an addictive behavior, he said. “What are the values of our community around distracted mobility?” he asked.

A new approach from Virginia State Police is an effort called Operation DISS-rupt, which targets the four key causes of fatal and serious crashes statewide: distracted driving, impaired driving, speed compliance and seat belt safety. ​

“The operation’s goal is to achieve zero fatal crashes during designated enforcement periods and to reduce the total number of crashes on our interstates for the calendar year by 10%,” Settle said. “I’m proud to say since initiating our first operation last winter on Interstate

81, we had zero deaths and saw decreases in overall crashes during those\ enforcement periods.”​

The initiative is being conducted on Interstates 64, 66 and 95.