1 in 4 surf Web while behind wheel

Increase driven by older drivers using smartphones

More Americans are surfing while driving.

The number of drivers who report using their cellphones to access the Internet while behind the wheel continues to rise, to a point where nearly one in four drivers are going online while driving, according to a national survey that has tracked the potentially deadly practice over the past five years.

Insurer State Farm began asking drivers in 2009 whether they went online while driving.

The percentage of drivers who said they do so has nearly doubled, from 13% in 2009 to 24% this year. Among drivers ages 18- 29, that number rose from 29% to 49%.

There were also jumps in the percentages of people who read or respond to e- mail, and who read or update social media networks while driving.

Most research on distracted driv- ing — and most laws against it — have focused on texting while driving, which creates a crash risk 23 times greater than not doing so, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Research at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that reading or sending a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds — long enough to cover the length of a football field at 55 mph.

The increases are driven largely by the growing use of smartphones among drivers 40 and older, says Chris Mullen, State Farm’s director of technology research. “It’s not just a youthful problem.”

Over the past three years, the sharpest increases in smartphone ownership were among older drivers. For drivers 40- 49, the percentage owning smartphones rose from 47% in 2011 to 82% in 2013; for those 5064, it went from 44% to 64%, and for those 65 and older, from 23% to 39%.

Perhaps reflecting the nation’s sustained campaign against texting while driving, that problem is growing much more slowly than surfing the Web. The percentage of people who report texting while driving rose slightly over the past five years, from 31% to 35% of all drivers. Among those 18- 29, the number who report doing so decreased, from 71% to 69%.

The rise in ownership of smartphones means there are more opportunities than ever for driver distraction, Mullen says.