Per the FARS database...the #1 most distracting thing in a car....ANOTHER PERSON.
#2 HAVAC/RADIO CONTROLS/CAR CONTROLS
Of course, those first too aren't as sensational as texting/talking while driving...... 
With steering wheel controls, you could take out the radio controls out of the equation. Also, if theyre not crying children, how is another person that distracting???
Just talking to them. This is nothing new. People in the car have long been the #1 driver distraction. For years.
And car controls still come in at #2.
Not nearly as dangerous I think as staring at your crotch while trying to type a text message or e-mail on a little keyboard.......
Perhaps. But Canada is only GUESSING that this is an issue, since they DO NOT keep records on specific causes of accidents, unlike the USA's FARS Database. I've done plenty of research on this. At best, for these types of accidents, Canada is guessing.
Before you were here (I think), I did extensive research on Street Racing, Distracted Driving, etc. I wrote a few articles. The street racing one was picked up by several news outlets, a couple of magazines and just about every car forum in the USA it seemed.
Here's some of it:
"Recently, there has been much in print and much grandstanding by politicians, Attorney Generals and Police Commissioners about how street racing is an "epidemic." Sadly, Joe Public eats it all up since he/she really has no clue and no way or verifying if what the talking heads are saying is true. How do I know this? Well that's because Canada doesn't compile and keep statistics on the causes of accidents, which would include those by street racing
(this is still true. OPP has no idea how many fatalities come from what. They do not have a FARS system as the USA does). As an auto enthusiast and an engineer for an automotive manufacturing company, I take a keen interest in all things automotive. So I decided to do much research on the topic so that I could make my own decision. With little information available here, I had to turn to the US. By all accounts, street racing is a much more serious problem in the US than it is here. Well after coming up empty for statistics from Transport Canada, I found a wealth of information from the National Highway Safety Administration FARS (Fatality Analysis Accident Reporting System) statistics. Street racing has been included in the FARS database since 1998.
"The statistics, to say the least, were eye opening. Far from being a scourge of the highways, street racing accounts for very few traffic deaths. From 1998-2005, there were 304,236 fatalities on U.S. roads. Of these, a mere 353 (0.12 per cent) were from street racing. For comparative purposes, I also looked at other common causes. Talking on a cellphone, another dangerous driving habit much hyped by police and the media was only slightly less dangerous at 327 deaths (0.11 per cent). Bear in mind, millions of Canadians talk on cell phones daily; an act statistically as dangerous as street racing.
Driving slower than the posted speed limit (429 deaths, 0.14 per cent) accounted for more deaths. Surprisingly, being distracted by something inside the vehicle, such as talking to a passenger, adjusting a mirror, fiddling with a radio or eating caused an eye-opening 38,914 deaths (12.79 per cent). Again, this is something plenty of people do every day while driving. Some of the highest trained street drivers in the world, police officers, caused nearly four times the fatalities (1,357, 0.44 per cent) of street racers! But these all pale in comparison to drunk driving. Nearly 144,000 people were killed by drunk drivers in the U.S., a staggering 44 per cent of all fatalities. Canada isn't much better. Drunk driving here is responsible for at least 30 per cent of all fatalities, claiming sometimes over 1,000 victims per year. By contrast I've been only able to find less than a dozen deaths caused by street racing in Canada for the last two years combined.
