Recently the National Safety Council (NSC) announced a new study that estimates that more than 25% of all crashes are caused by cell phone related distractions. Statistically this means that more than 1.6 million crashes per year are caused by distracted driving due to cell phone use -- which is more than 1 million more than previous estimates.

In constructing its estimates, NSC used widely-accepted statistical methods and analysis based on data of driver cell phone use from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and from peer-reviewed research that quantifies the risk of using a cell phone and texting while driving. NSC’s statistical model and estimates were peer-reviewed by academic researchers in traffic safety and biostatistics.

This is obviously a very alarming statistic and clearly demonstrates the epidemic proportions of the distracted driving problem.  On the same day of this announcement a new group, also supported by the NSC was also formed to help combat this issue. The new group named FocusDriven is an advocacy group for victims of motor vehicle crashes involving drivers using cell phones. It was announced in conjunction with  US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and will be led by Jennifer Smith, who has been an outspoken advocate against distracted driving since her mother was killed by someone talking on his cell phone while driving in 2008.

On the heels of their commercial launch at CES , ZoomSafer also announced support for educational activities such as FocusDriven along with a new partnership with DefensiveDriving.com which offers motorists a free BlackBerry equipped with safe driving software to break bad driving habits.  To help prevent distracted driving, ZoomSafer is now commercially available for BlackBerry devices and can be downloaded by visiting www.zoomsafer.com,and Handmark mobile application catalog or the BlackBerry App World store beginning in early 2010.