Kiss and tell: Nearly one-third of U.S. drivers engage in romantic contact behind the wheel

Throughout the year — not just on Valentine’s Day — nearly one-third of American drivers are smooching or engaging in other romantic contact while they’re behind the wheel, according to a poll conducted for InsuranceQuotes.com.

Twenty-nine percent of drivers surveyed acknowledge they’ve been amorous behind the wheel. That number climbs to 39 percent for highly educated drivers (at least a bachelor’s degree) and high-income drivers (at least $75,000 in annual earnings).

Kissing behind the wheel is more common among high-income and highly educated drivers than among average drivers, according to a poll conducted for InsuranceQuotes.com.

Kissing your Valentine while you’re driving certainly can be fun, but it also can be dangerous. Sixteen percent of fatal crashes in 2009 were attributed to distracted driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Given that statistic, it’s wise to keep your eyes on the road, rather than on your sweetheart.

The poll, conducted for InsuranceQuotes.com by GfK Roper, a division of GfK Custom Research North America, shows how universal distracted driving has become: 93 percent of drivers report they engage in it somehow, whether by texting, talking on a cell phone — even kissing.

To read more results from the InsuranceQuotes.com poll on distracted driving, visit /distracted-driving.

This poll was conducted online Oct. 1-3, 2010, via OMNIWEB, a weekly national online omnibus service of GfK Roper Custom Research North America, for InsuranceQuotes.com. GfK Roper completed 1,006 interviews with 485 male and 521 female adults age 18 and older from a representative sample of the online population from GfK’s online consumer panel. Of this group, GfK Roper identified 858 who had a valid driver’s license.