BISMARCK, N.D. (KXNET) — The old advice to never use your phone while driving is one that is constantly promoted, no matter where you are. But even so, there are still many who insist on doing just that. This has led to its fair share of crashes — many of which are fatal. And unfortunately, these incidents are more common in some states than others.
To determine where these phone-related accidents are the most frequent, the personal injury law firm Zinda Law Group analyzed vehicle crash data provided by each state from 2017-2021. This information was then converted into a percentage of total crashes. Any crash in which a driver was reported as being distracted by listening to, talking on, or manipulating their mobile phone or other relevant incidents involving passengers using the same devices, were included in this statistic. When these percentages were weighed against one another, it was determined that North Dakota is one of the states where phones play the largest part in both vehicle crashes and vehicle-based fatalities. This is a trend shared with many other states in the American Midwest — including Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, and Montana.
| Rank | State | Total number of vehicle crashes since 2017 | Percentage of accidents caused by mobile phones | Total Number of Occupants Involved in Fatal crashes caused by mobile phones since 2017 |
| 1 | Wyoming | 541 | 4.07% | 22 |
| 2 | North Dakota | 473 | 3.81% | 18 |
| 3 | Kansas | 1,898 | 3.79% | 72 |
| 4 | Minnesota | 1,843 | 3.53% | 65 |
| 5 | Vermont | 294 | 3.40% | 10 |
| 6 | Montana | 914 | 2.95% | 27 |
| 7 | Utah | 1,258 | 2.78% | 35 |
| 8 | Delaware | 574 | 2.61% | 15 |
| 9 | Alabama | 4,333 | 2.52% | 109 |
| 10 | Michigan | 4,835 | 2.44% | 118 |
Although North Dakota was not technically the state with the largest number of fatal crashes or the most individuals killed as a result of them, it does have one of the highest percentages of crashes caused by mobile phones. Of the 473 total fatal crashes throughout the Peace Garden State since 2017, 3.81% of them were directly caused by phones in some regard, leading to a total of 18 deaths. In contrast to the areas with the highest percentages of phone-related crashes, some of the states with lower rates include Florida, New York, and Oregon.
| Rank | State | Total number of vehicle crashes since 2017 | Percentage of accidents caused by mobile phones | Total Number of Occupants Involved in Fatal crashes caused by mobile phones since 2017 |
| 41 | Oregon | 2,316 | 16 | |
| 42 | Connecticut | 1,338 | 0.67% | 9 |
| 43 | Florida | 15,342 | 0.66% | 102 |
| 44 | New York | 4,785 | 0.61% | 29 |
| 45 | Nebraska | 1,032 | 0.58% | 6 |
| 46 | North Carolina | 6,935 | 0.52% | 36 |
| 47 | Oklahoma | 3,081 | 0.39% | 12 |
| 48 | Nevada | 1,545 | 0.39% | 6 |
| 49 | South Carolina | 4,897 | 0.39% | 19 |
| 50 | Rhode Island | 313 | 0.00% | 0 |
“It is extremely sad to see the number of fatal vehicle crashes that could have been prevented had the occupants not been using their mobile phones or distracting the driver as a passenger,” a spokesperson from Zinda Law Group stated in a press release. “We hope that these figures highlight why it is so important to keep phones out of reach when driving or to find a solution that will minimize distractions, alongside ensuring passengers do not distract their drivers on the roads.”
To learn more about traffic incidents and ways to stay safe on the road here in North Dakota, visit this page on Vision Zero’s website.
