It appears that there is a new form of distraction when driving your vehicle, you’ve heard of texting when driving and calling when driving, both highly dangerous activities when in control of a vehicle, well now you can add “apping” to that list.

According to an article over on Phone Dog by Ari Robbins, this new driving distraction, reported by msnbc, a survey started by Nationwide insurance surveyed 1004 drivers and the results of said survey show that 24 percent of drivers with smartphones use applications when driving.

The mobile apps used most often by people at the wheel are location based apps, email and text, and social networking apps, while 3 percent of recipients admitted to downloading applications whilst driving another 2 percent admitted to watching videos when driving and 2 percent played games.

The rather surprising fact of the survey is that 38 percent of those surveyed suggested they had at some time either been nearly hit or hit by someone using a mobile phone at the wheel. Just goes to show some people will never learn.

As we have stated before, it’s not texting, calling, apping or anything else in particular, but rather using a mobile phone at all when driving without the use of a hands free kit…it is dangerous folks, do not use your mobile device when driving; “apping” when driving isn’t unsafe it’s down right irresponsible and a danger to other road users.