Report: 60% of Drivers Still Use Cellphones While Driving

We all do things we know we shouldn’t. It’s our little secret, right? It turns out a lot of us do something we know is dangerous – using a mobile phone while driving – but we do it anyway.

The numbers are in – according to market research company Harris Interactive, 91 percent of motorists know it’s unsafe to use a handheld cellphone while driving, but nearly 60 percent of motorists still do it. Yep, this is one bad habit we just can’t seem to break.

There’s some good news to these numbers – according to the same survey, the number of drivers using mobile phones as dropped from 72 percent to 60 percent. Breaking down that number by age, almost 72 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds said they call and drive on occasion, while 32 percent of people older than 66 said they did. And some more good news – only a few people who were surveyed said they used their cellphones constantly while driving all the time.

Other interesting numbers – about nearly 77 percent of respondents believe it’s safer to use a hands-free device than a cellphone when driving. We guess that’s why 40 percent of them use hands-free phones now (that’s up from 28 percent in 2006).

In addition to talking on a cellphone and drive, another bad habit we can’t seem to break include texting and driving (27 percent of those asked said they do it).

If you needed proof that talking and texting while driving is hazardous to your health, the Governors Highway Safety Association claims that nearly 25 percent of all U.S. car crashes can be attributed to cellphone usage. That’s something to think about before you check your messages on your way into work.

[Source: MediaPost]