Americans are using their phones in riskier ways while driving, worsening the nation’s crash crisis, according to a new report.

Although overall cellphone use on the road is down, drivers were “observed manipulating their phones” 57 percent more often in 2018 than they were in 2014, according to research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

That means people are putting themselves at significantly higher risk of dying in a car crash.

“People are talking on the phone less than they were in 2014 and they’re manipulating it more, which is things that include texting and potentially browsing the internet or potentially using it for navigation, audio, music,” said David Kidd, senior research scientist for the Highway Loss Data Institute, a sibling organization to IIHS.
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