Home / Library / Traffic Violations
How Many Massachusetts Crashes Involve a Distracted Driver?
Last updated
MassDOT crash records list a distracted driver in 28,507 of the 405,242 crashes reported in Massachusetts from 2022 through 2024, which is 7.03 per cent of all crashes and 9.28 per cent of the crashes where the officer filled in the distraction field at all. Those crashes are more likely to hurt someone: 28.57 per cent involved an injury, against 22.89 per cent of all crashes. Phones and other electronic devices account for 6,915 of them, about a quarter, and the largest single label is not the phone at all but âother activity,â meaning searching, eating or personal hygiene. The numbers also carry a warning that matters for anyone reading a crash report: the field is the reporting officerâs judgement, it is blank on about one crash in four, and towns that border each other record distraction at very different rates.
If a distracted driver hit you and you want to talk through what the records show, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day, and the first telephone consultation is free.
Where These Numbers Come From
Every figure on this page comes from the MassDOT IMPACT open crash data for 2022, 2023 and 2024, the same source behind the Massachusetts crash report pages on this site. Each crash record has a field called âdriver distracted,â and it holds one entry per driver: âD1: Not Distracted / D2: Passenger,â for example. The data uses eight values:
- Not Distracted
- External distraction (outside the vehicle)
- Other activity (searching, eating, personal hygiene, etc.)
- Manually operating an electronic device
- Other activity, electronic device
- Passenger
- Talking on hand-held electronic device
- Talking on hands-free electronic device
On this page a crash counts as a distracted driver crash if any driver in it carries any value other than âNot Distracted.â A crash counts as a device crash if any driver carries one of the three electronic device values or hands-free talking. There is no âunknownâ value: when the officer did not record anything, the field is simply blank, which happened in 24.73 per cent of 2022 crashes, 24.31 per cent of 2023 crashes and 23.50 per cent of 2024 crashes. That is why this page gives most rates two ways, against all crashes and against the 307,249 crashes where the field was filled in.
What Kind of Distraction Gets Recorded
| What the officer recorded | Crashes, 2022 to 2024 | Share with an injury | Fatal crashes per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other activity (searching, eating, personal hygiene) | 11,277 | 30.56% | 1.60 |
| External distraction (outside the vehicle) | 8,824 | 23.84% | 1.36 |
| Manually operating an electronic device | 3,579 | 28.89% | 2.24 |
| Other activity, electronic device | 2,676 | 31.20% | 1.12 |
| Passenger | 1,549 | 34.22% | 4.52 |
| Talking on hand-held electronic device | 351 | 36.47% | 0 |
| Talking on hands-free electronic device | 320 | 28.75% | 3.12 |
| Any distracted driver | 28,507 | 28.57% | 1.72 |
| All crashes | 405,242 | 22.89% | 2.68 |
A crash can carry more than one value (two drivers, two different distractions), so the rows add up to slightly more than the total. Some of the counts are small: the passenger row has 7 fatal crashes and the hands-free row has 1, so their per 1,000 figures move a lot on a single crash.
Three things stand out.
The phone is a minority of recorded distraction. Device crashes are 6,915, or 24.3 per cent of distracted driver crashes. Hand-held use, meaning manually operating a device or talking on a hand-held one, is 3,929. The everyday distractions, reaching for something, eating, looking at something outside the car, make up most of the record.
The labels drift from year to year. âOther activityâ fell from 4,053 crashes in 2022 to 2,982 in 2024 while âexternal distractionâ rose from 2,672 to 3,278. Drivers did not change that much in two years. The more likely reading is that officers are sorting similar events into different boxes, which is a reason to treat the label on any single report as one officerâs call, not a measurement.
Severity moves in two directions. Distracted driver crashes have a higher injury share than crashes overall (28.57 against 22.89 per cent) and a lower recorded fatal rate (1.72 against 2.68 per 1,000). The fatal number needs care. The distraction field is filled in on only 551 of the 1,087 fatal crashes, about half, against three quarters of crashes overall, which makes sense: when a driver dies, nobody may be able to say what they were doing. Among fatal crashes where the field was filled in, 8.89 per cent list a distracted driver, close to the 9.28 per cent for all crashes with the field filled in. So the low fatal rate is mostly a gap in the record, not evidence that distraction is safer.
How Distracted Driver Crashes Happen
The type of collision is where distraction shows most clearly, because it fits what a distracted driver does: fails to see traffic stopping ahead, or drifts off the road.
| Manner of collision | Share of distracted driver crashes | Share of crashes with the field filled in | Distraction rate within that manner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rear-end | 36.59% | 28.41% | 11.95% |
| Single vehicle | 26.71% | 19.10% | 12.98% |
| Angle | 14.73% | 24.75% | 5.52% |
| Same direction sideswipe | 8.35% | 13.61% | 5.69% |
Rear-end and single vehicle crashes are where distraction gets recorded: roughly one in eight of each lists a distracted driver. Angle crashes, the typical intersection collision, are less than half that, because those usually turn on right of way rather than attention. For a person rear-ended in traffic, this is the practical point: the crash type itself is consistent with distraction, and the question is what the other driver was doing. How fault is weighed is covered in how fault is determined in a Massachusetts car accident.
Time of day. Between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. the recorded distraction rate is about 15 per cent (15.24 per cent in the 1 a.m. hour, 14.46 at 2 a.m., 15.28 at 3 a.m.), against 8.69 to 9.33 per cent through the early afternoon. Late night crashes are more often single vehicle crashes, which is part of the reason; the night crash data covers that pattern.
Driver age. Grouped by the youngest driver in the crash, the distraction rate is remarkably flat: 8.54 per cent when the youngest driver is 65 to 74 and 10.28 per cent when the youngest is 16 or 17. The difference by age shows up in device crashes. Crashes whose youngest driver was 25 to 34 are 30.87 per cent of device crashes against 28.01 per cent of crashes with the field filled in, while the 65 to 74 band is 1.82 per cent of device crashes against 3.37 per cent. Teen drivers have their own rule, covered below, and their crash record is in the teen driver crash data.
Counties and Towns: A Record of Recording
By county, the share of crashes (with the field filled in) that list a distracted driver runs from 14.23 per cent in Dukes County to 6.21 per cent in Suffolk:
| County | Distracted share, field filled in | Distracted driver crashes |
|---|---|---|
| Dukes | 14.23% | 70 |
| Franklin | 12.71% | 358 |
| Nantucket | 12.11% | 59 |
| Plymouth | 10.98% | 2,736 |
| Barnstable | 10.43% | 1,334 |
| Essex | 10.31% | 3,420 |
| Hampshire | 9.82% | 611 |
| Berkshire | 9.74% | 665 |
| Hampden | 9.57% | 2,769 |
| Worcester | 9.29% | 4,164 |
| Middlesex | 8.86% | 5,383 |
| Bristol | 8.69% | 3,319 |
| Norfolk | 8.36% | 2,763 |
| Suffolk | 6.21% | 856 |
It is tempting to read that as a map of where drivers are most distracted. The town numbers show why that would be a mistake. Among the 97 communities with at least 1,000 crashes where the field was filled in, the distracted share runs from 5.17 per cent in Dedham to 16.17 per cent in Middleborough, with a median of 8.83 per cent. Then look at neighbours:
- Westwood records 13.31 per cent (173 of 1,300). Next door, Dedham records 5.17 per cent (58 of 1,121) and Canton 5.39 per cent (61 of 1,131). Norwood is 10.03 per cent.
- Middleborough records 16.17 per cent (403 of 2,493). Raynham is 7.44 per cent, Wareham 7.80 and Bridgewater 10.49.
Drivers in Westwood are not two and a half times as distracted as drivers across the town line in Dedham. The difference is how each department fills in the field. The same pattern shows by agency: local police list a distracted driver in 9.99 per cent of the crashes where they filled in the field, State Police in 6.59 per cent. And the big cities leave the field blank more often. Boston filled it in on 58.5 per cent of its crashes and recorded 597 distracted driver crashes (5.86 per cent of those); Worcester filled it in on 61.7 per cent and recorded 601 (6.25 per cent), and in Worcester a device is involved in 43.9 per cent of recorded distraction against 24.3 per cent statewide. Springfield, which filled the field in on 85.9 per cent of crashes, recorded 893 (9.36 per cent). The local pages for Boston, Worcester and Springfield cover how a claim works in each city.
The honest reading: statewide, about one crash in eleven with the field filled in lists a distracted driver, and the injury share in those crashes is higher. Town by town, the number tells you as much about the police department as about the drivers.
Answer Capsule
From 2022 through 2024, MassDOT crash records list a distracted driver in 28,507 of 405,242 Massachusetts crashes (7.03 per cent of all crashes, 9.28 per cent of crashes where the field was filled in). Those crashes had an injury in 28.57 per cent of cases against 22.89 per cent of all crashes. Electronic devices account for 6,915 (24.3 per cent of distracted driver crashes); âother activityâ such as searching or eating is the largest label at 11,277. Rear-end and single vehicle crashes are where distraction is most often recorded (11.95 and 12.98 per cent). Town rates reflect police recording habits: Westwood 13.31 per cent against neighbouring Dedham 5.17. Massachusetts bans holding a phone while driving under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 13B, and drivers under 18 may not use one at all under sec. 8M.
What Massachusetts Law Says About Phones While Driving
Three sections of chapter 90 cover devices behind the wheel, and each is stricter than many drivers assume.
Every driver, c. 90, sec. 13B. No operator may hold a mobile electronic device, use one except in hands-free mode, or read or view text, images or video on one. The one screen exception is a navigation map on a device âmounted on or affixed to a vehicleâs windshield, dashboard or center console.â A driver stopped at a red light is still operating; the statute treats a vehicle as not being operated only if it is âstationary and not located in a part of the public way intended for travel.â Fines are $100, $250 and $500 for a first, second and third offense, a second offense adds a driver behaviour program chosen by the Registry, and a third offense becomes a surchargeable incident for insurance.
Drivers under 18, c. 90, sec. 8M. A junior operator may not hold or use a mobile phone, a hands-free phone or any mobile electronic device while driving, hands-free included. A first offense carries a $100 fine, a 60 day license or permit suspension and a required program; a second, $250 and 180 days; a third, $500 and a year.
Bus, train and ferry operators, c. 90, sec. 12A. Operators of public transportation, including a school bus, may not use any mobile device, hands-free included, except in their official duties under written guidelines, with a $500 fine.
Both sec. 13B and sec. 8M allow an emergency defense: reporting a disabled vehicle, a medical emergency, a need for police or fire, or a crash or disabled vehicle on the road. The law in more depth is in the Massachusetts hands-free driving law.
What the Records Mean for an Injury Claim
A distraction entry on a crash report helps, but it is not the claim. In Massachusetts, a violation of a safety statute is evidence of negligence, not automatic liability, and the crash report entry is one officerâs judgement made at the scene. A report marked âNot Distracted,â or left blank, does not mean the other driver was paying attention either; it can just mean nobody saw the phone.
If you think the other driver was distracted, these are the steps that usually matter:
- Get the crash report. Ask the responding department for the report and read the driver distracted entry for each driver, along with the narrative and any citation under sec. 13B.
- Write down what you saw at once. A driver looking down, a phone in hand, a driver saying âI didnât see youâ or âI looked away for a secondâ are facts that fade fast.
- Find witnesses and video. Other drivers, pedestrians, and cameras at nearby businesses or on dashboards can show where the driverâs eyes were.
- Preserve the device evidence early. Phone records and device data showing activity in the seconds before impact generally require formal legal process to obtain, and carriers and apps do not keep everything forever.
- Get medical care and keep the records. The injury share in these crashes is higher than average, and treatment records are what connect the crash to the harm.
- Mind the deadline. A personal injury claim from a Massachusetts car crash generally has to be filed within three years under M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A.
If you are thinking about hiring a lawyer, ask about the fee arrangement directly. Many injury lawyers work on a contingency fee, meaning no attorney fee unless there is a recovery, though the client may still be responsible for costs and expenses depending on the written agreement.
Key terms
- Driver distracted field: the entry on a Massachusetts crash report where the officer records, for each driver, whether they were distracted and by what, using the eight MassDOT values listed above.
- Distracted driver crash: on this page, a crash in which at least one driver was recorded with any value other than âNot Distracted.â
- Device crash: a crash in which at least one driver was recorded as manually operating an electronic device, doing another activity with one, or talking on a hand-held or hands-free one.
- Hands-free mode: using a phone or device without holding it, the only way sec. 13B allows an adult driver to use one at all.
- Junior operator: a driver under 18, who under sec. 8M may not use a mobile device while driving at all, even hands-free.
- Field filled in: a crash where the officer recorded something in the distraction field, which happened in 307,249 of 405,242 crashes (75.82 per cent).
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How many crashes in Massachusetts involve distracted driving?
A: MassDOT crash records list a distracted driver in 28,507 of the 405,242 crashes reported from 2022 through 2024, 7.03 per cent of all crashes and 9.28 per cent of the crashes where the officer filled in the distraction field. By year that was 9,562, 9,869 and 9,076. Because the field is blank on about a quarter of crashes, the real number is likely higher.
Q: How many Massachusetts crashes involve a cell phone?
A: Crashes where a driver was recorded using an electronic device, by hand, for another activity, or talking hand-held or hands-free, numbered 6,915 from 2022 through 2024, 1.71 per cent of all crashes and about a quarter of distracted driver crashes. Hand-held use alone was recorded in 3,929.
Q: Are distracted driving crashes more dangerous?
A: They are more likely to involve an injury: 28.57 per cent did, against 22.89 per cent of all crashes. The recorded fatal rate is lower (1.72 against 2.68 per 1,000), but the distraction field is filled in on only about half of fatal crashes, so the fatal figure mostly reflects a gap in the record.
Q: Which Massachusetts town has the most distracted driving crashes?
A: Among communities with 1,000 or more crashes where the field was filled in, Middleborough records the highest share (16.17 per cent) and Dedham the lowest (5.17 per cent). Neighbouring towns differ sharply, Westwood 13.31 per cent against Dedham and Canton near 5 per cent, so these figures describe how each police department records distraction more than how its drivers behave.
Q: Is it illegal to hold your phone at a red light in Massachusetts?
A: Yes. Under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 13B a driver may not hold a mobile electronic device, and a car stopped in a travel lane is still being operated; the statute only excludes a vehicle that is stationary and not in a part of the road intended for travel. Fines are $100, $250 and $500 for the first three offenses.
Q: Can teenagers use hands-free in Massachusetts?
A: No. Under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 8M, a driver under 18 may not use a mobile phone, a hands-free phone or any mobile electronic device while driving. A first offense carries a $100 fine, a 60 day suspension and a required program, with steeper penalties after that, and there is an emergency defense.
Q: Does a crash report saying âNot Distractedâ end a distracted driving claim?
A: No. The entry is the reporting officerâs judgement, often made without seeing a phone, and it is blank on about one crash in four. Witness accounts, video, the driverâs own statements and, through legal process, phone and device records can all show what the driver was doing. A violation of sec. 13B is evidence of negligence, not automatic liability.
Q: How long do I have to file a claim after a distracted driver hits me in Massachusetts?
A: A personal injury claim from a car crash generally has to be filed within three years of the crash under M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A. Device evidence can disappear much sooner than that, so the practical deadline for preserving it is far shorter.
Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?
A: No. This page is general information about Massachusetts crash data and law for educational purposes. It is not legal advice for your situation and does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your own crash, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS.
This article is general legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Massachusetts law is fact-specific; telephone Jim Glaser Law about your particular situation. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Attorney advertising under Mass. R. Prof. C. 7.1 to 7.5. Responsible attorney: Jim Glaser, admitted in MA only, of counsel to Keches Law. Principal office: 77 Pond St., Sharon, MA. Most cases referred to other jurisdictionally licensed lawyers for principal liability.