JERSEY CITY (1010 WINS) – Speeding and drunk driving weren’t the leading causes of deadly crashes in New Jersey in 2018—distracted driving was.
An analysis of deadly crashes by state police found that 146 of such crashes were caused by drivers being distracted by things like texting, drinking coffee and playing with onboard infotainment systems.
By comparison, 143 deadly crashes were caused by intoxication and 53 were caused by speeding, according to NJ.com.
It’s the eighth straight year that distracted driving killed the most people on New Jersey roads.
However, the report found that deadly distracted driving crashes were down from 196 in 2017—a drop that has been attributed to campaigns like “U Text, U Drive, U Pay.”
The number of deadly intoxicated driving crashes was also down from 158 in 2017.
Pedestrian fatalities were also down—181 in 2017 compared to 166 in 2018. But the number of deadly hit-and-run crashes was up—25 in 2017 to 39 in 2018.