Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), a smartphone-centric telematics provider, has announced its latest findings on distracted driving. Data from a study involving several hundreds of thousands of drivers shows that phone distraction occurred during 52 percent of trips that resulted in a crash.
CMT’s mobile apps measure driving behavior in six categories: phone use while driving, excessive speeding, braking, acceleration, cornering and time of driving. These apps provide actionable information to drivers so they can understand and improve their driving behavior.
Key findings of the CMT study include:
- Distracted driving occurred during 52 percent of trips that resulted in a crash.
- On drives that involved a crash, the average duration of distraction was 135 seconds.
- Phone distraction lasts for two minutes or more on 20 percent of drives with distraction, and often occurs at high speeds: 29 percent at speeds exceeding 56 miles per hour.
- The worst 10 percent of distracted drivers are 2.3 times more likely to be in a crash than the average driver, and 5.8 times more likely than the best 10 percent of distracted drivers.
Road fatalities have increased significantly in the past few years. The National Safety Council (NSC) found that the number of fatalities on U.S. roads rose by 14 percent since 2015, the largest two-year increase in five decades.
Anti-Phone Laws
The Insurance Information Institute has found that phone use while driving has increased steadily in recent years, especially among young drivers. The NSC reports that 11 teens die every day as a result of texting while driving. To combat this issue, 37 states ban all cell phone use by novice or teen drivers, and many states have enacted some anti-cellphone legislation. CMT’s data shows that states with anti-cellphone laws have only slightly safer drivers than those that don’t. The average duration of phone distraction per 100 miles of driving for three categories of states is:
- States with laws against all handheld use: 3.17 minutes
- States with laws against all handheld use for “under 18” drivers: 3.25 minutes
- States with no laws against any handheld use: 3.82 minutes
Collision claims frequency has also skyrocketed in the U.S. over the past several years, causing auto insurance companies to experience record losses in the billions of dollars. Although smartphones have contributed to this problem, CMT’s work shows that the smartphone presents a new opportunity to accurately measure and reduce distracted driving at a low cost.
