Looking Back: Examining the Trends of Driver Distraction from 2007-2011

Abstract

Advances in both vehicle and roadway technologies prevent vehicle fatalities; however, this also allows a wider availability of secondary activities that can be performed while driving. Fatalities caused by distraction have increased while overall vehicle fatalities have decreased. Although, driver distraction has been thoroughly researched, few studies have concentrated on the overall trends. Examining the trends of previous studies allows researchers to identify deficiencies within this field in order to focus future efforts in those areas. This paper identifies the research trends regarding the topic of driver distraction as published in four journals between the years of 2007 and 2011.