Wellington and East Gippsland divisional traffic adviser David Carey said he was concerned there were too many "distractions'' in cars, such as mobile phones and GPS units, that were diverting a driver's attention away from the road.

"You just have to walk up the street and you notice (people are wearing) no seatbelts and talking on the phones,'' he said.

"People need to concentrate on the road, your eyes need to be scanning all the time and there needs to be 100 per cent total concentration.''

Senior Sergeant Carey's concerns stem from the rising number of car crashes in Wellington shire.

Between January 1 and March 31 this year there were 143 collisions in the Wellington police service area, an 11.7 per cent increase from last year.

A positive was the fact crashes causing serious injuries decreased by 15 per cent from 34 to 29 crashes, but of those crashes 17 were single vehicle accidents.

"Some of those will be due to distractions there's no doubt,'' Senior Sergeant Carey said.

Driver error accounted for 16 out of the 29 cases, followed by road design and conditions (six), speed (five), alcohol (four), fatigue and distractions (two each).

Seventy-nine per cent of those serious injury collisions occurred in 100kmh zones, where Senior Sergeant Sergeant Carey said concentration was vital.

Senior Sergeant Carey said there needed to be a greater emphasis on developing people's driving skills, especially learner drivers.

"Learners need their parents to teach their children how to survive on the road,'' he said.

"Some parents spend more time developing their kid's skills in a sport or for a hobby than in teaching them how to drive.

"And parents need to have the skills to pass onto their children.

"We're happy to admit if we're not good at playing a sport but when it comes to driving we all reckon we're great drivers, even if we're not.

"It's a shame we don't take the time to develop the skills that we need to.

"The safer we make cars, the more `automatic' people start driving and don't bother to use common sense and skills to drive.''