During 2010, SmartDrive Systems, a company specializing in fleet safety, examined distracted driving behaviors of commercial fleets by evaluating over 13.8 million recorded in-cab video events. The business utilized in-vehicle recorders that followed over 34,466 commercial drivers and recorded risky vehicle manuevers such as sudden stops, swerves, collisions and other risky behaviors. Using the video data, the business then determined that there were 9 common distractions that lead to drivers becoming engaged in a risky manuever.
The Top 9 Most Common Distracted Driving Behaviors found:
1. Object in Hand : 44.5%
2. Talking on a handheld mobile phone: 13.4%
3. Beverage: 12.7%
4. Food: 10.1%
5. Smoking: 9.9%
6. Operating a Handheld device: 9.1%
7. Talking/Listening Mobile Phone - Hands Free: 5.2%
8. Manifest, Map or Navigation: 1.0%
9. Grooming/Personal Hygeine: 0.6%
What does this mean for your business?
Looking at this list, do you notice a common theme?
Does your business have and enforce a distracted driving policy?
Have you recently discussed distracted driving during a safety meeting?
Based upon the information collected by SmartDrive, it appears that we could all use a refresher on safe driving and the importance of staying focused on the road.
Lisa Mundt is a Senior Risk Control Representative for Westfield Insurance, a regional insurance company based in Northeast Ohio and operating in 18 states. Lisa is based out of our Atlanta, Georgia office.
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Great information. Keep up the wonderful work
Posted by: Brent Kelly | May 12, 2011 at 11:50 PM
Brent - Thanks for the positive feedback. We always love hearing that our blogs are helpful to others.
Posted by: Lisa | May 13, 2011 at 01:41 PM