News | Driving Insights

Study: More than half of car crashes blamed on cell phone distraction

CBS Atlanta
April 6, 2017

A new study by Cambridge Mobile Telematics reveals a shocking find in recent car crashes – 52% resulted from phone distraction. The data used in the study came from several hundreds of thousands of recent car accidents. CMT is one of the world’s leading smartphone-centric telematics; the research center compared its mobile apps to recent accident reports.

Here are a few of the key findings:

  • Distracted driving occurred during 52% 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% of drives with distraction and often occurs at high speeds: 29% at speeds exceeding 56 miles per hour.
  • The worst 10% 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.

According to the National Safety Council (NSC) the number of road fatalities rose by 14% since 2015, the biggest two-year increase in the last 50 years. The NSC also reports 11 teens die every day as a result from texting while driving.

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