It is no secret that handheld electronic devices are a significant and dangerous distraction for motorists.
Many might be surprised to learn which digital apps some drivers openly acknowledge using behind the wheel of moving vehicles.
"The number one app that people admit to using while driving is Instagram," said Ryan McMahon, senior vice president of strategy and corporate development at Massachusetts-based Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), which tracks and analyzes driving safety data for the auto insurance industry and other customers, including government agencies.
For those who might not know, Instagram is a social media platform used to share photos and videos.
"The number two app is the camera app," McMahon said.
"Which is crazy when you think about that. It's taking pictures and videos," he added.
Distracted driving caused 11,262 crashes in Pennsylvania in 2023, according to state Department of Transportation data — exceeding the state's 8,330 alcohol-related crashes — and over 50 of those distracted driving crashes were fatal.
Nationwide, distracted driving kills over 3,000 people each year, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data. That's more people than died in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
This year, Pennsylvania took legal action to give law enforcement agencies tools to combat the issue, however, those tools will take time to come into effect.
Gov. Josh Shapiro in June signed Act 18, or "Paul Miller's Law," which will prohibit the use of hand-held electronic devices while driving.
Under Act 18, warnings will be given from June 2025 to June 2026, and citations will be issued beginning June 2026.
The law is named for Paul Miller Jr., a Scranton man who was killed by a distracted tractor-trailer driver in a 2010 crash in Monroe County. He was 21.
Miller's mother Eileen fought for the law for over a decade, working closely with lawmakers including state Sen. Rosemary Brown (R-Monroe County), who spearheaded the bill which was passed by the Legislature and signed by Shapiro this year.
Viewers can hear from Miller and Brown about the legislation, and the issue of distracted driving, on the next Keystone Edition Reports, which will air at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4, on WVIA-TV.
'Everybody thinks it's never going to be them'
In addition to fighting for a change in the law, Miller has become a driving safety advocate, educating herself on the dangers and spreading the message with students and community groups.
"No phone call or text is worth a life. And you know, right now, more than ever, I see more people on their phone," Miller said in an interview at her Scranton home.
"Everybody thinks it's never going to be them, but it literally happened to my son and so many other families in Pennsylvania," she said.
Miller is skeptical of distracted driving fatality statistics, believing them to be significantly underreported, for several reasons.
Proving that a driver was distracted is extremely difficult if an officer or witness didn't see them using a device and often relies on motorists to admit they were distracted, which many don't. The National Safety Council acknowledges this likely underreporting and describes the factors.
Then, too, there has been inconsistency in record-keeping, especially in earlier years as the problem was evolving. Miller said her own son's death 14 years ago was not recorded as a distracted-driving fatality in the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), despite the tractor-trailer driver's admission.
'It's seen as a less impactful risk'
That lack of transparency from drivers at crash scenes contrasts with what Cambridge Mobile Telematics has learned from drivers in more candid moments.
CMT gathers sensor data from tens of millions of devices — including smartphones, tags, connected vehicles, dash cams, and third-party devices — with drivers' permission, to analyze crash data and driving behavior more generally for motorists who opt into safer incentive programs from insurance companies.
What CMT has learned about specific app usage came not from data recorded by sensors, but from surveys responses from drivers who participate in the company's programs, McMahon explained.
What other apps topped the survey responses?
"Number three is WhatsApp, which is a messenger, and number four is Facebook," McMahon said.
Others included YouTube, Gmail, Facebook Messenger and Google Chrome.
One takeaway from those responses, McMahon said, was that the different apps tend to be popular with different demographics, underscoring that distracted driving is not confined to one age group.
"It is absolutely true that certain groups drive more risky but the challenge to solving this particular issue is more tricky because distracted driving is seen as a less impactful risk than speeding. It's seen as a less impactful risk than drinking and driving," McMahon said.
That attitude has parallels with other risky behaviors, he said.
"It's one of these actions that people can do and not have anything bad happen to them for a long period of time," McMahon said.
"People smoke for long periods of time, people will eat unhealthy for long periods of time. And it's the accumulation of those behaviors that lead to long-term negative results," he added. "The challenge with distracted driving is it could happen the next time you're in the car, but people develop this psychological immunity to risk."
'I drove distracted all the time'
Joel Feldman was one of the people who used to feel immune to the risks.
"for 40 years, I've been a plaintiff's personal injury attorney in Philadelphia, representing folks who've been in terrible crashes caused by — very often — distracted driving," Feldman said.
"Yet despite that, I drove distracted all the time."
That changed in 2009, when Feldman's 21-year-old daughter, Casey, was struck and killed by a distracted driver.
'It made me reevaluate my life. It made me reevaluate what I was doing on the road," Feldman said.
"If someone had told me before Casey was killed that what I was doing was dangerous, my attitude probably would have been, 'yeah, maybe when you do it, but I'm a great driver,'" he said.
"If someone had told me what I was doing was selfish or disrespectful, I hope I would have had a different reaction," he said. "Distracted driving is not consistent with my values. It's not consistent with who I think I am and who I want to be, that's how we need to change the culture surrounding distracted drivers."
Like Miller, Feldman has devoted himself to educating as many people as possible about the risks and costs of distracted driving.
Feldman and his wife, Dianne Anderson, founded the Casey Feldman Foundation to award scholarships and gifts in their daughter's memory, and to promote awareness of the issue.
Feldman said he works with state and federal organizations, volunteer groups, researchers — including CMT — and has spoken over 1,000 times.
"I think I have spoken to more than 500,000 kids," he said.
It was young people who helped change Feldman's ideas about the morality of distracted driving.
"I have a video I show of a bus driver who's very distracted. I show it to adults at businesses, and I show it to kids. The adults say it's dangerous, it's reckless. You know what? The kids tell me it's selfish and disrespectful," he said.
"I've never, ever had an adult say selfish or disrespectful, but it's often the first thing out of the kids," Feldman said.
That's not the only difference he's seen between generations. Feldman recalled speaking with a group of adults about distracted driving during a corporate safety session earlier this year.
"Of course, most of them are parents. So I just had them raise their hands if they would do anything to keep their kids safe. All hands stayed up," Feldman said.
"Then I said, 'Only keep your hands up if you don't drive distracted with your kid in the car.' All the hands came down," he said.
He hopes the message will resonate with parents to protect themselves and their children by putting their phones down in the car.
"We're exposing (our children) to risk. But what's even worse, we're teaching them it's OK that when they get their licenses, that they can drive distracted, and we have to stop that," Feldman said.
'Publicity does change behavior'
As noted above, penalties under Pennsylvania's new law won't kick in until 2026 — and when they do, the fine will be $50, the result of legislative compromises that were necessary to get the bill passed.
PennDOT needed time to update its driver’s manual, driver’s tests and knowledge testing practice app in all available languages, Jennifer Kuntch, the department's deputy communications director, said earlier this year.
"There was also concern by the Legislature on making sure the general public had some time to be aware of the changes this law makes," Kuntch added.
Even so, CMT's McMahon believes the deterrent effect will begin to be felt sooner, with media coverage of the law helping play a role.
"Publicity does change behavior," McMahon said.
"When you pass a law, you're sending a signal to a portion of the population that says, 'Look, this is not an OK activity to do, regardless of whether it goes in force (immediately) or not, or whether law enforcement is pulling you over for it," he said. "The passing of the law is a signal to a portion of the population that says, 'This is dangerous,' and those people will take action."
Ohio, for example, has seen marked reductions in distracted driving since implementing a law which, like Pennsylvania's, included a phase-in period, McMahon said.
The Buckeye State passed a distracted driving law that went into effect in April 2023. But the law included a six-month grace period, so police didn't start issuing citations until October of that year.
"They passed the law last year, and they have had a sustained media campaign, and they're seeing reductions in months 10 and 11 and 12," McMahon said.
"It is easy to get reductions in month one and two. When I say month one and two, I mean immediately, when these laws go into effect, because you get that immediate bump," he said. "The trick is how you get (such reductions) in the outer band, and that is what they have done."
That media campaign included a dedicated website, together with consistent messaging from Gov. Mike DeWine, the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Following a year of enforcement, DeWine announced last month that fatal crashes attributed to distracted driving had dropped 19.4%, while the number of motor vehicle crashes dropped overall.
“This is exactly what we expected would happen,” DeWine said. “Ohio's tougher distracted driving law is influencing better behavior behind the wheel, leading to fewer crashes and fewer deaths. Together, we are promoting a culture of responsibility on our roads, and that’s truly something to celebrate.”
McMahon agreed.
"It's not one person or one department, it is a cultural component," he said.
"Enforcement is part of it, but I don't think that just putting everything on the on the shoulders of the state police or the local townships is enough," McMahon said. "To really be successful in these programs, the media side of things turns out to be a much better tool over a sustained period of time."
'It's not an easy fight'
At the Miller home in Scranton's East Mountain section, Paul Jr.'s presence is everywhere — because of his absence.
In the backyard, Eileen Miller has a black granite headstone etched with his face and the Celtic tattoo Paul Jr. designed for his arm to celebrate his Irish heritage.
His ashes are not there, but Miller wanted the stone so her husband, Paul. Sr., who suffers from ALS, had a place where he could pay respects to their son without having to go to the cemetery.
Inside the home, mementoes of Paul Jr. are everywhere: Photos, sports trophies, personal items.
Inside his "memory room," there is another item that holds a darker past.
It's a plastic door handle from his car, which Miller retrieved from the crash site.
"All I could hear was Paul saying, 'Mom, you can get a handle on this,'" she said.
"There was blood on it, and there was all dirt in it," Miller said, clutching the handle. "And I keep it here. And on days when I'm struggling, like when my legislation kept being pushed back, I would say 'I got this,' and I felt like I was holding Paul."
Also in the room is a framed copy of Paul Miller's Law, together with the pen Shapiro used to sign the act at the state Capitol in Harrisburg.
The governor also inscribed a personal message to Miller: "Eileen — You delivered meaningful change that will save lives. Your son Paul's memory is a blessing."
Miller choked back tears in her kitchen as she recounted her son's life, his death and the battle to protect others from the pain her family has endured for 14 years.
"I always say, I'm a mom with a mission, not a politician," she said.
"People are now calling me from other states saying, you know, 'How did you get it done? Will you work with me now?'"
Her response is honest but blunt.
"You have to be in for a big, long fight. It's not an easy fight," Miller said.
She has no doubt that fight was worthwhile, and will be for others.
"It will be a beacon of protection for every passenger and driver in Pennsylvania, for a mother who could not even recognize her son at the morgue," Miller said.
"There's nothing that important. Turn it off."
