Car technology leads drivers to distraction Fatal crash: The wreckage of Sarah Durazza's car after her crash on Monday. As cars come packaged with more electronic devices, distracted drivers are contributing to more crashes across the state. The number of crashes on NSW roads in which driver distraction was a factor has doubled in less than a decade, figures from the Centre for Road Safety show. There are more technologies in cars which drivers are interacting with. Seven people were killed over 12 hours on Monday. Police believe that six of those crashes were caused by human error, including that which killed Sarah Durazza, 26, who was reportedly on the phone. Mike Regan, from the University of NSW Transport and Road Safety group, said attention was increasingly being shifted from the road. "There are more technologies in cars which drivers are interacting with," he said. That's leading to distractions. In 2011, drivers distracted by something inside their cars were a contributing factor in 1585 crashes, compared with 748 in 2004. More than 900 of those in 2011 led to injury and one to death. Crashes in which the use of a hand-held phone contributed also increased, from 30 to 50. Professor Regan said drivers were bringing more electronic devices into their cars, such as MP3 players, but also buying new cars embedded with more technology than five years ago, such as GPS systems. "We have new ways of a mobile phone connecting with cars that may cause more distractions than a hand-held phone itself," he said. Lauchlan McIntosh, from the Australasian College of Road of Road Safety, said it was difficult to legislate against driver distraction and there should be more investment in solutions that disable devices when cars are moving. A NRMA survey last year found that 40 per cent of NSW drivers said they change the route on their GPS while driving. A report by a State Parliament committee on road safety this year recommended better testing of electronic devices for driver distraction effects, and more enforcement of rules relating to in-car technologies.