Originally Posted by
howsteepisit
Since the reports are based on police determining that driving with a "technological device" during their investigation, its also entirely possible that in the 2005 to 2010 police have become better/more diligent at determine that said distracted driving occurred at the time of the accidents.
Note: I did not read the referenced article in Public Health Reports, my opinion is based on the news release by the University.
You guessed right that what they say in the report but they also say that it is unlikely that it impact the trend
data collection may be improving over time when determining whether or not crashes were related to distracted driving. However, it seems unlikely that any improvement in data collection would differentially affect trends for one type of victim relative to other victims of motor vehicle crashes