It turns out being caught singing along loudly to a favourite tune while parked at the traffic lights isn’t the worst thing that can happen when you listen to music while driving.

New research suggests it may also be linked to car crashes.

The study found the rate of fatal car accidents in the United States was around 15 per cent higher on the day of major album releases by musicians such as Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Drake.

Harvard Medical School clinical fellow Vishal Patel, who led the research team, came up with the idea of cross-referencing traffic fatalities with music streaming peaks after his wife texted him about a new song while he was driving.

“It hit me that a split second longer with my eyes off the road could have meant a serious accident,” he told the Harvard Gazette, explaining that he had started drifting out of his lane while scrolling through his smartphone for the song.

“Then I thought, if millions of people are doing the same thing at the same time – on the day a big album drops – the cumulative risk on the road must be enormous.”

The researchers – who published their results this week in JAMA Network Open – noted that more than one million people around the world are killed on roads each year. Around one death occurred every 13 minutes in the US in 2021, with distraction believed to be a key factor.

“Texting and talking on the phone while driving are known safety issues,” the study said.

“Modern smartphones, however, present new opportunities for driver distraction, including the capability to stream music while driving.”

In exploring the possible link between new music releases and crashes, Patel and his team first identified the top 10 most-streamed albums on Spotify in a single day from 2017 to 2022.

Leading the list was pop star Taylor Swift’s Midnights (with more than 184 million streams on its first day of release), followed by Drake’s Certified Lover Boy and Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti. Others included Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, Kendrick Lamar’s Mr Morale & the Big Steppers and Kanye West’s Donda, with Swift and Drake also featuring multiple times.

Analysing road accident data from the US’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System for the same period,  the researchers found traffic fatalities were highest on the dates of the album releases compared with the 10 days before and after the new music dropped.

In fact, there were 18 more deaths – a relative increase of just over 15 per cent – on album-release dates.

“This is equivalent to approximately 182 fatalities in the US attributable to the release days of the 10 included albums,” the study concluded.

The increase was greater among younger drivers, who are also more likely to stream music than older drivers, and in cars with infotainment systems.

Something as simple as selecting a song may take your attention off the road. Photo: Pexels

The researchers said there were multiple possible sources of distraction that might be linked to a new album release, including “human response to the music itself”.

“It could be manipulation of the device, it could be general distraction because of the excitement,” senior author Anupam Bapu Jena told the Harvard Gazette.

“It could also be that you’re playing the music louder than you normally would play it, and that you don’t pick up things around you that you otherwise would have picked up. Any of those things are possible.”

A number of limitations to the study were acknowledged, including the fact that other factors could be contributing to the increase in fatal crashes, that drivers use streaming platforms other than Spotify, and the fact that it didn’t consider non-fatal accidents.

There have also been significant advancements in vehicle safety, smartphone technology and AI since the data collection period ended. Like Australia, many countries now also have rules banning drivers from holding a phone or other device.

Nonetheless, Patel believes the temptation to divide our attention will only become greater “as cars become increasingly connected”.

Psychology professor Despina Stavrinos, who was not involved in the new study, agreed that rapidly evolving technology has increased the ways in which drivers interact with their phones.

She said even something as simple as choosing a song could create a potential distraction.

“This study broadens the conversation from, ‘Are people texting while driving?’ to a much more important question: How does continuous interaction with a digital ecosystem affect driving?” Stavrinos, director at the Institute of Social Science Research at the University of Alabama, told CNN.

“It is whether the technology is competing with the attentional resources needed to safely operate the vehicle,” she said.

The new study’s authors suggest that further actions by smartphone and vehicle manufacturers, software developers and policymakers to improve driver safety surrounding streaming media may be warranted to reduce traffic fatalities.