News | Distracted Driving

Distracted driving overtakes drunk driving as top road safety concern: survey

Canadian Insurance Top Broker
February 15, 2018

Could insurance discounts motivate drivers to put their phones away?

Distracted driving has surpassed drunk driving as consumers’ number one safety concern on the road, according to a recent survey by Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT).

Sixty-three percent of respondents to the U.S.-based survey said they had a greater fear of distracted drivers on the roads than they did of intoxicated drivers, while 75% said they see people using their phones behind the wheel every single day.

“These numbers illustrate the severity of the distracted driving epidemic, and highlight the urgent need for a new approach that combats distracted driving through technology and consumer incentives to motivate behavior modification,” CMT co-founder and chief scientist Sam Madden said in a news release.

CMT says laws against cellphone use proved to be less of an incentive to reduce distracted driving than receiving discounts from insurance providers—something that 79% of respondents said would encourage them to be on their best behavior.\

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