Omnitracs has published new data on distracted driving in the trucking industry. These insights come from aggregated and anonymized data from the SmartDrive advanced video-based analytics platform. According to Omnitracs, the data analysis clearly demonstrates that the most distracted drivers are less safe overall, commit significantly more fundamental driving errors and drive faster than the speed limit compared to all other drivers.

“Preliminary National Safety Council (NSC) data indicates that 42,060 people died in motor vehicles crashes in 2020,” commented Jason Palmer, general manager of transportation intelligence for Omnitracs. “That’s an 8% rise from 2019, and 2020 was a year where people drove significantly less frequently because of the pandemic. In addition, the rate of death on the roads spiked 24% over the previous 24-month period, despite miles driven dropping 13%. Unfortunately, distracted driving is still an epidemic.”

The SmartDrive Distracted Driving Insights for Trucking came to the following conclusions:

• The most distracted drivers are 72% more likely to be involved in a near collision than all other drivers.
• Drivers distracted heavily by mobile phones are involved in collisions at a rate two times higher than the least distracted drivers.
• Drivers identified as ‘most distracted’ roll through stop signs and traffic lights at a rate 2.7 times higher than ‘least distracted’ drivers.
• Drivers distracted heavily by mobile phones had speed incidents with 10-plus MPH over the speed limit at a rate 3.2 times higher than ‘least distracted’ drivers.
• Drivers identified as ‘most distracted’ drift out of lane at a rate 2.3 times higher than “least distracted” drivers. Drivers identified as ‘most distracted’ fail to wear a seatbelt at a rate over 3 times higher than “least distracted” drivers.

You can find the full Distracted Driving Data Insights on the company’s website.