Study: We're all terrible when it comes to using phones while driving

Despite the laws that prohibit the use of smartphones while on the road, the vast majority of drivers in the US still play around with their devices in their cars. Zendrive conducted a study among 3.1 million drivers — over 5.6 billion miles of driving  — to find out just how often they use their handsets.

The results aren’t very good, as drivers used their smartphones on 88 percent of trips they took. The average individual behind the wheel spent around 3.5 minutes per hour on a device. Vermont had the highest rate of device usage, while Oregon had the lowest.

It is interesting that people in Los Angeles spent the most time using their smartphones out of all US cities, but California as a whole had one of the lowest rates of usage.

Using your smartphone while driving is not the safest thing in the world to do. Taking your eyes off the road for just two seconds increases the risk of getting into an accident by 20 times.

Despite cars getting safer and smarter, the number of traffic deaths has been increasing ever since 2015. The number of people who lost their lives on US roads exceeded 40,000 in 2016 for the first time in the last ten years. We are easily distracted by our mobile devices, which is a bad habit to get into.

To stay on the safe side of things, keep your eyes on the road while driving and make sure you don’t play with your smartphone. It’s just not worth the risk. Safety first!