Texas Leads Nation in Distracted Driving Crashes, But Highway Risk Tells a Different Story

AUSTIN, Texas (TXAN 24) — Texas continues to stand out nationally for distracted driving crashes, but new multi-year data shows the state’s risk profile shifts sharply depending on where and how those crashes happen.

From 2019 through 2023, Texas recorded 3,199 total distracted driving crashes—more than any other state in the country. Despite that high volume, only 60 of those incidents occurred on highways at speeds of 55 mph or higher.

That produces what analysts describe as a “Blindfold Speed Index” of 2, indicating a relatively low proportion of high-speed distracted driving crashes compared to other states.

By comparison, Florida logged fewer total crashes (2,430) but had 784 highway-speed incidents, showing a much higher exposure to high-speed danger. States like Louisiana and California also showed significantly larger shares of highway-related distracted crashes.

The data points to a key takeaway: Texas’ distracted driving problem is widespread, but it is more concentrated on surface streets, urban corridors, and lower-speed environments rather than interstates.

Still, officials warn the volume alone remains a serious concern. With more than 3,000 distracted driving crashes in five years, Texas leads the nation in total incidents, underscoring the scale of driver inattention across the state.

Transportation safety experts say the findings suggest enforcement and public safety campaigns may need to be tailored differently, focusing both on urban distraction hotspots and targeted highway corridors rather than treating distracted driving as a single uniform risk.

For Texas, the danger isn’t just how often it happens, but where it shifts when it does.