In New York state, it’s been illegal for drivers to talk on a hand-held phone for almost 20 years; texting at the wheel was banned a decade ago.
Across the U.S., many states have distracted-driving laws in place. Yet federal studies estimate over 3,000 people a year die from distracted driving, and safety experts believe the actual number is far higher.
The number of drivers who’ve had a distraction-related incident—from a close call to a full accident—remains terrifyingly high. Laws can’t do much in those moments when a seconds-long glance at a phone can result in a fatality.
Mike Pitcher, a retired Atlanta executive, is still haunted by a near hit a few years back. Elated at having just bought a house, he broke his personal no-phones-at-the-wheel policy and unwittingly cruised his Cadillac Escalade past a stopped school bus and two grade-school kids about to cross the street. “I slammed on the brakes, looked back in the rear-view mirror,” recalls Pitcher.
One way to try to assess just how badly we’re behaving on public roads may come from the phones in question. Insurance agencies and fleet managers have turned to several technology startups that monitor the speed and motion of a phone to flag when it’s being used by a driver.
A smartphone driving platform, TrueMotion Inc. asks drivers to have their phone usage tracked while they’re behind the wheel in exchange for insurance incentives or other rewards. The company has developed proprietary apps for Met Life, Inc., The Progressive Corporation, and Travelers, among others, and that data is not shared with external parties. The data shared with Bloomberg comes from TrueMotion’s analysis of the roughly 30,000 drivers using one of two free apps that the company offers: TrueMotion Family, targeted mostly to parents of driving-age teenagers; and Mojo, an incentive-based app where subscribers can accumulate points for safe driving and then exchange those for rewards.
The data support the generally-accepted wisdom that despite laws, penalties and reminders of the hazards of cell phone distractions while behind the wheel, drivers continue to put themselves and others on America’s roads in grave danger.
