April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month and TxDOT is continuing our Talk/Text CRASH campaign to raise awareness of the dangers associated with distracted driving and to encourage Texans to put down their cell phones while driving.

Distracted driving, which includes distraction, driver inattention or cell‐phone use, is becoming increasingly common and dangerous, causing traffic crashes and fatalities. In 2014, there were 100,825 traffic crashes in Texas that involved distracted driving (distraction, driver inattention or cell-phone use). That is an increase of 6 percent from 2013. These crashes in 2014 resulted in 3,214 serious injuries and 468 deaths. In fact, nearly one in five crashes in Texas involves driver distraction.

Although cell phone use is the most easily recognized distractions, all in-vehicle distractions are unsafe and can cause crashes or fatalities. TxDOT calls on all Texans to focus on the road and wait until arriving at their destinations to conduct non-driving activities.