State stats

The Oklahoma Highway Safety Office 2006 Factbook states that the numbers of car crashes in which a cell phone was being used has increased 81 percent from 1997-2006.

And according to the OHSO, there have been 3,333 car crashes in the since 1997 in which a cell phone was in use. However, Kathy Adams, OHSO data specialist said those numbers also include other forms of crashes, such as alcohol or drug involvement, so that doesn’t mean the crash was necessarily caused by cell phone use or distraction.

The most common type of crash in 2006, according to the report, was inattention. There were 291 crashes in 2006 where a cell phone was being used, more than 100 higher than the previous year, 185. It’s also a 90 percent increase from 1997, when only 29 crashes involving cell phone use were credited to inattention.

-Baxter Holmes