Phone Use Before Crashes Is Underreported: IIHSSimpleImages - Getty ImagesDistracted driving due to the use of mobile phones while behind the wheel is a widely-known problem these days—and one that is grossly underreported, according to a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The independent safety watchdog, which published the study on Thursday, claims that cell phone use immediately before crashes may happen at least 700 percent more often than police report.Using anonymized cellphone data from Cambridge Mobile Telematics, IIHS researchers claim that seven percent of drivers in single-vehicle crashes and eight percent of drivers in two-vehicle crashes were using their phone in the 30 seconds before impact. By comparison, police reports for the same crashes recorded cellphone use less than one percent of the time.New York Daily News - Getty Images"It's widely accepted that police reports often fail to capture the role of cellphones in crashes. Many smartphone functions are hard for a witness to see, and drivers are reluctant to admit being distracted," IIHS president David Harkey said. "Telematicsare allowing us to understand the true magnitude of the problem."AdvertisementAdvertisementPolice officers rarely arrive at the scene of a crash within seconds of its occurrence, and are even less likely to see a crash occur in real time, which means it can be difficult to verify cellphone use. So, it isn't exactly the fault of first responders that cellphone use goes underreported. However, IIHS researchers say that the burgeoning world of telematics data paints a worrying picture.Jeff Greenberg - Getty ImagesThe researchers linked crashes recorded by safe-driving apps to police-reported crashes in four states between 2021 and 2024, creating a sample of 17,000 crashes. Within that sample, telematics data can identify the kind of phone manipulation at play. While passive use, such as Google Maps navigation, accounted for five percent of all crashes surveyed, active manipulation—defined as tapping, swiping, or otherwise manipulating the screen—was also included. In two-vehicle crashes, the study found, active manipulation occurred within the 30 seconds before nearly four percent of recorded crashes. Hands-free calls and hand-held calls were also identified through telematics data, though these functions didn't account for significant crash statistics."Navigation apps may have accounted for much of that passive activity. But nearly 25 percent of drivers who participated in a separate IIHS survey admitted to watching a video on their phone while driving at least once in the previous 30 days," the report reads.Even when law enforcement and telematics data both identified phone use, IIHS researchers explained, they didn't always agree on the type of distraction; police reports only identified the same kind of phone use as telematics in three of the 17,000 surveyed crashes. Similarly, only certain types of cellphone use are illegal in some states, meaning that law enforcement officials aren't always looking for cell phone use in post-crash investigations. However, 21 states now prohibit drivers from holding phones altogether, a policy that IIHS research shows is effective.You Might Also LikeIf You Can Only Own One Car, Make It One of TheseThese Are the Most Popular Cars by State