[dirtyaura]

First, road accidents are are among top 10 causes of deaths in the world, so this isn't a small matter.

Second, there is research that shows that dividing your attention just between driving and talking can cause a significant reduction of reaction speed. Driving safely is not monotonous activity. Of course, if your car is crawling in a LA traffic jam, accidents are mostly non-fatal, but when you are driving 100km/h, cars are dangerous objects.

[aianus]

Driving safely on an empty freeway at 100km/h is one of the most monotonous things I can think of. Hell, if it's a straight flat section of road you are literally doing nothing except trying to stay alert in case something changes. The human brain (or at least mine) is not good at staying in a focused hyper-aware state for a long period of time while nothing's happening.

[atmosx]

I believe that accidents caused by distracting devices are only a small % (really small) of this trend. The huge % of car accidents is because of alcohol abuse.

[dirtyaura]

If I recall correctly, distracted driving is the main cause for around 20% of the fatal accidents in the US. Drunk driving is around 40%.

[atmosx]

If it's as high as 20% I'm all wrong, sorry. Was not able to find any hard-data (paper) though.