Mobile phone use while driving: Empirical evidence from Al-Najaf Governorate, Iraq.

The Iraqi national statistics has recently revealed an increase in both the number of mobile phones and the number of the total crash injuries due to using mobile phone while driving. Accordingly, the current paper aims to explore the personal and driving characteristics of phone-use drivers in Al-Najaf governorate, Iraq; in addition, to investigate whether the various socioeconomic traits of those drivers could influence their mobile phone use patterns during driving. A paper-based researcher-administered questionnaire survey was conducted whereby 417 drivers have been interviewed. Exploratory data analysis using IBM SPSS (v.26) was used to examine the phone user drivers' characteristics whereas Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were adopted to investigate to what extent could drivers with various traits are with different phoning activities while driving. The results showed that 77% and 83% of drivers make and answer between 2 to 9 calls daily while driving, respectively. About 40% of drivers use their mobile in hand-held position. In contrast, the inferential analysis revealed three significant findings; first, elderly drivers read or write remarkably less notifications than those in other groups. Second, whereas drivers in university or higher studies groups do fewer calling and answering activities than those in other groups, such drivers are usually do more reading and writing notification activities. Third, drivers in self-employed category do more calling/answering activities while driving than their peers who are employed, students or retired. The reached findings can aid policy makers in developing effective tactic and strategic road safety plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]