The Delaware Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) has been updated for 2021-2025. Overseen by the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT), the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security, the Delaware State Police, and 28 statewide Stakeholder agencies, the data-driven plan selects eight Emphasis Areas on which to focus for the planning period.
The Emphasis Areas for this plan period are Intersections, Distracted Driving, Impaired Driving, Roadway Departures, Pedestrians, Motorcycles, Unrestrained Motorists, and Speeding. In this article, we will have a brief look at the Distracted Driving Emphasis Area, but we encourage you to have a look at the SHSP itself and consult the additional resources on DelDOT’s support page as well.
This emphasis area illustrates how the SHSP relies on the “4Es” – Engineering, Education, Emergency Response, and Enforcement. To imagine that we can engineer the perfect roadway system and the roadway users will perfectly operate it is a wonderfully romantic notion. Our best efforts at engineering and maintenance can serve to make the roadway safer for all users, but to genuinely pursue a Toward Zero Deaths goal, an all-hands-on deck approach is needed and education, enforcement, and the emergency response community are essential elements.
When we hear “distracted driving,” we frequently associate the term with talking or texting on a cellular telephone. However, distracted driving includes many other distractions, such as adjusting the radio, reading driving directions, attending to passengers or pets, reaching for objects on the floor or back seat, eating or grooming, gesticulating frustration with other drivers, or any activity that takes the driver’s attention away from the task of safe driving.
In 2019, there were 239 serious injury and fatal crashes in Delaware, down from a recent high of 271 in 2017. In the 2015-2019 planning period, over 19% of fatalities and serious injuries involved distracted driving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration (NHTSA), texting takes your eyes off the road for five seconds, equivalent to traveling more than the length of a football field with your eyes closed at 55 mph (134 yards, 400 feet). You know how you take that little excursion down to the radio or to check a text while traveling 39 through the 35 mph zone? That’s just about a football field you traveled. Delaware deployed its handsfree cell phone law the beginning of 2011 and combined fatalities and serious injuries associated with distracted driving did reduce from 151 in 2015 to 116 in 2019, but much work remains for this complex behavioral issue.
As with other Emphasis Areas, there is crossover of factors, and distracted driving crashes are often related to intersections, impaired driving, unrestrained motorists, roadway departure, and other contributing factors.
Distracted drivers are biased towards males (64%) and are over-represented as driver age reduces. These crashes are strongly correlated to the late afternoon and early evening. Urban areas account for 69% of distracted driving serious injuries and fatalities. Rear end crashes dominate serious injury and fatalities (44%).
So, what is the plan for 2021-2025? The SHSP calls for five strategy areas. Strategy 1 is to develop and distribute consistent public information messages to increase public awareness of the laws and dangers of distracted driving. Strategy 2 is increased enforcement programs. Strategy 3 is support of legislative action to strengthen efforts to combat distracted driving. Strategy 4 is to improve roadway infrastructure to minimize the consequences of distracted driving. Strategy 5 will improve data collection and monitoring of distracted driving trends.
Each of these strategy areas include two to four specific action items that the 4E’s will collaborate on over the five-year period with the objective of reducing distracted driving fatalities and serious injuries by 15%. To learn more about the specific strategies, have a closer look at the plan.
Reducing serious injuries and fatalities on Delaware roadways will take a continued, long-term diligence on the part of all stakeholders, including roadway users. Engineering, maintenance, enforcement, education, and emergency response are key to the long-term objective of Toward Zero Deaths, but roadway users (drivers, motorcycle riders, pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders, and segwayers) must join the fight and be less impaired, less distracted, more restrained, and slow down.
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