State highway departments will soon have a tool to track traffic accidents caused by drivers using their handheld cell phones or other electronic gadgets.

By the first of the year, every state is scheduled to receive a booklet of revised codes describing causes of vehicle crashes, including distractions from electronic communication devices. Traffic safety and crash data experts, including the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) and the Federal Highway, developed the codes.

New York state banned driver cell phone use in June 2001 and 40 other states are considering similar bans.

Barbara Harsha, executive director of GHSA, said the updated crash codes will allow them to develop data that demonstrate whether electronic distractions in vehicles are a serious safety problem.

A March report by the National Conference of State Legislatures suggests device-related distractions killed an estimated 600 to 1,000 motorists in 2001 and could kill 2,000 a year by 2004.