Chapter 9 Driver Distraction in Commercial Motor Vehicle Operations

This chapter describes the prevalence of driver distraction in commercial motor vehicle safetycritical events (e.g., crashes, near-crashes). Safety-critical events, recorded in a naturalistic data set that included over 200 drivers and three million miles of data, were analysed. Key findings were that drivers were engaged in tertiary (non-driving-related) tasks in 71 per cent of crashes, in 46 per cent of near-crashes, and in 60 per cent of all safety-critical events. Tasks that significantly increased risk included texting, interacting with a dispatching device and dialling a cell phone. Eye glance analyses found that tasks that drew the drivers’ eyes away from the forward roadway were those with significantly elevated risk.