The most common distractions for UK motorists have been highlighted in new research published by the AA.

According to the vehicle recovery specialist's findings, almost two-fifths (38 per cent) of UK vehicle owners admitted to having been distracted at the wheel during the last 12 months, with the main causes for their lack of attention to the road also outlined.

Overall, 16 per cent of respondents stated they had a near miss or crash as a result of fiddling with the radio when their attention should have been focused on the road ahead of them, while 14 per cent of drivers stated they had the same result due to being distracted by children in the car.

Other major causes of a lack of focus were shown to be operating a sat-nav device (13 per cent), being involved in a conversation via a mobile phone (12 per cent), eating at the wheel (nine per cent), drinking (seven per cent), texting (five per cent), emailing (one per cent), checking social media (one per cent) and smoking (one per cent also).

The results go to show that it is a wide array of reasons given by people who claim distraction caused them to either be involved in or nearly have an accident on the UK's roads last year, with eight per cent of almost 7,000 respondents suffering a near miss and 1.5 per cent an accident.

Moreover, mobile phone use was shown to be one of the most likely distractions to kill, with three per cent of all accidents attributed to mobiles resulting in a fatality – compared to 1.4 per cent for other distractions.

AA president Edmund King commented: "Although human distractions remain the biggest in-car threat, the figures for sat-navs and mobile phones give a warning for what might happen in the future as 'infotainment' and other technology become more commonplace.

"The higher kill rate for mobile phone-related reported accidents provides a strong wake-up call."