Smart Mobility Why Mobile Phone Use While Driving is a Major Challenge

Even a quick glance at a smartphone while driving means driving blind. According to the German Road Safety Council, reading or typing a message for just two seconds equals 28 meters of distraction at 50 km/h and 55 meters at 100 km/h. In 2023, 977 people in Germany were injured in accidents involving smartphone distraction, including 197 seriously and 20 fatally. In the US, the NHTSA reported 3,308 deaths in 2022 caused by drivers using their phones. The British RoSPA warns that phone use makes drivers four times more likely to crash, and the British Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) estimates the economic cost of a single fatal accident at £1.8 million.
It is clear something needs to be done, but how? Are laws the answer?

Legislation against mobile phone use while driving

Legislation prohibiting this dangerous behaviour are an important foundation, but they are not enough on their own to tackle the problem. Evidence of this is the widespread disregard for laws banning the use of mobile phones while driving. Recent statistics show, for example, that one-quarter of all drivers admit to making or recieving voice calls while driving, with that number rising to 49% among young drivers, ages 17 to 24.

The reason for this lack of compliance with legislation against mobile phone use while driving is that enforcement is very difficult and almost impossible to achieve by traditional means, i.e. by police officers. This would require a huge amount of manpower and would be very expensive.

The result is a lack of proper enforcement across the board, and the laws that should ensure road safety become empty words on paper.

Deterrent Effect to change social norms

Without effective enforcement, something crucial is missing: the deterrent effect. Fear of the consequences of breaking the law is a powerful motivator for compliance. However, if the likelihood of being caught is virtually zero due to inadequate enforcement, there is no such deterrence. As a result, the public does not take the laws seriously enough, which encourages more and more drivers to break the law and use their mobile phones while driving.

This also leads to a lack of influence on social norms. Currently, using a mobile phone while driving is seen more as an inappropriate behavior than as a dangerous illegality. Comprehensive enforcement can lead to a long-term change in perception and behavior.

The key question is therefore how to implement effective and practical enforcement.

Automated mobile phone detection

It has already been established that the primary challenges in enforcing mobile phone laws are budget limitations and staffing shortages. This underscores the need for efficient enforcement strategies that work independently of staffing fluctuations, perhaps even reducing the workload. One solution that is ready to meet this challenge is the use of advanced technology. By combining sophisticated cameras and AI-based software, mobile phone offenses while driving can be detected and recorded fully automatically. And since these systems can be integrated into the existing traffic infrastructure, for example by mounting them on poles, their deployment is not a future reality but is possible in the relatively short term.
And what’s more, the systems can also detect when a driver is not wearing a seat belt, which counteracts another dangerous behavior. Wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of fatal injuries by at least 50%. And about one in four drivers or passengers killed in a road accident was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident or was not wearing it correctly.