Hi Colin. Identifying the characteristics of "distraction" is one of the key objectives of this project. I use quotation marks because it is applied to a wide variety of driver behaviours. We will definitely be able to look at the time a driver spends looking off road and at a particular in-vehicle system (phone, gps, children, etc). Work by VTTI using the SHRP2 data (similar to the data we collect in ANDS) has identified that looking away from the road for prolonged periods of time significantly increases the risk of crash or near-crash events. I would expect that our results would be similar.
How many times do you look at your sat navs while your driving, I do not think it has that much influence. However, the impact can be measued by either using driving simulator, Or by using probe vehicle.