Using mobile devices while driving in Croatia – preliminary analysis Dragan Peraković, Ivan Grgurević, Ţeljko Šarić, Ivan Forenbacher, Siniša Husnjak, Ivan Jovović, Ivan Cvitić, Gordana Kordić, Rosana Elizabeta Sente, Petra Zorić University of Zagreb, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences Department of Information and Communication Traffic Zagreb, Republic of Croatia, EU Abstract—Research has shown that using a mobile device while driving increases the risk of traffic accidents by up to five times. From 2010 to 2014, Croatia has doubled the number of offenses caused using mobile device while driving. Current methods of prevention have succeeded in reducing the number of offenses (reduction of 6% in 2016), which justifies the investment in ways to improve prevention. Except the financial penalties, activities in the form of prevention and awareness raising about the negative impact of the use of mobile devices on driver behavior and the safety of road traffic in Croatia are insufficiently pronounced. The aim of this research is to determine the intensity of the use of mobile devices and to find to what extent would certain technical, technological and regulatory measures trigger a reduction in use. Keywords- mobile phones, drivers, safety, distraction I. INTRODUCTION Depending on the life situations and the type of job, people are accustomed to frequent use of mobile phone. The use of mobile device while driving allows the driver to immediately access the information that is essential to him. However, this ability comes with few negative effects for the driver as its one of the ways of driver distraction. According to currently available literature, there are several types of distraction (talking to in-car companion, radio device, navigational device, etc.), but the use of mobile device while driving has the most dangerous effect. This is because actions such as telephony, writing messages, or reviewing websites require visual, sound and cognitive attention of drivers, and hence the safety of road traffic gets disrupted. Details from police reports of traffic accidents are included in „Bulletin about road safety‟ published by the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia – MUP. This Bulletin is the only official national statistical database about the number of traffic accidents and the most frequent causes of accidents, publicly available for the education of traffic participants about the risk factors in traffic. Although the previously mentioned available basis contains the most frequent causes of accidents, including the category of the roads, there are some accident causes that are not easily identified. This is primarily the case of the use of all types of mobile devices while driving (mobile phones, smart watches, embedded information and entertainment systems, etc.). The most pronounced risk factors related to the problem of mobile phone influence on driving are insufficient awareness and the fact that the use of mobile phone while driving is an increasing trend that is considered as common. This research is presented and financed by the project of The National Road Safety Programme of the Republic of Croatia 2011 – 2020, under the title „The impact of mobile device usage on drivers' behavior‟. The following chapters present developed research methodology and the preliminary research results gathered through questionnaires form Q1 and Q2 stages of the project. The aim of the project is the introduction of preventive actions for raising the collective awareness, informing and drivers education about the negative effects of the use of mobile devices while driving. During the project, the objective is to study driver‟s behavior in real-life situations and in car-test polygon environment. The research results will provide the ground for forming the national informative Web 2.0 portal as the media intended for educating on the dangerous effects of using mobile device while driving. II. PREVIOUS RESEARCH Drivers who use a mobile device while driving are distracted for 5 seconds in average, i.e. do not follow the road in front of them, and by driving at a speed of 50 km/h exceed 60 meters of road completely unaware of the traffic. Due to this reason, 3,328 drivers were killed in the United States – US in the year of 2012, while the 48% of US drivers stated that they regularly use their mobile devices while driving [1]. That is why it is extremely important to warn all traffic system participants on the sources of threats and to form informative and educational actions for reducing the threat and strengthen the safety. Research results from Canada have shown 52% of respondents continue to use mobile phone while driving, regardless the awareness of the driver about the possible road safety threats. About one fifth (1/5) respondents answer their phone immediately no matter of the present situation in traffic [2]. Respondents who use their phone while driving and the ones who don‟t, both, agreed that the using of mobile phone for writing and reading messages while driving is very dangerous, and that the use of mobile phone while driving is as dangerous as driving drunk [3]. In 2013 distracted driving was the cause of 2,910 deaths in car accidents in the US, from which 14% was caused because the use of mobile phone while driving, i.e. 455 lives were lost due to the mobile phone usage behind the wheel. Recordings The 5 th International Virtual Research Conference In Technical Disciplines November, 13. - 17. 2017, www.rcitd.com Automotive - Safety engineering eISSN: 2453-6571, cdISSN: 1339-5076 10.18638/rcitd.2017.5.1.109 - 56 - ISBN: 978-80-554-1375-4