New grant towards studying distracted driving

(ABC 6 News) — A new grant for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety is aiming to study trends associated with distracted driving.

The Office of Traffic Safety says that distracted driving contributes to an average of nearly 30 deaths per year across Minnesota.

Under the grant, data will be collected for a variety of sources including cell phone apps to learn what a driver is doing while they are behind the wheel. The information collected is anonymous.

“We are going to be able to use data in ways that we have never been able to do before to solve traffic safety problems,” said Mike Hanson, the director of OTS.

This project is solely focused on Hennepin County, but once they analyze the data at the end of the month, they will decide if other counties will be included.