Texting while driving contributes to many car crashes and car insurance claims. Unfortunately for the car insurance industry the truth will seldom be revealed as the drivers of these vehicles are unlikely to admit that they were texting at the time of the accident!
Survey results from the US
The US Insurance Research Council did a survey and talked to more than 1,400 licensed drivers about texting and driving. The results are both revealing and alarming:
- Almost one in five drivers or 18% report texting while driving. according to a survey by
- Younger drivers were the biggest culprits — 31% of drivers 24 and younger and 41% of drivers’ age 25 to 39 reported texting while driving.
- That compared to just 5% of drivers 55 and older.
Dangers of texting as contributing factor to vehicle accidents
- Distracted drivers are about four times as likely to be involved in crashes as those who are focused exclusively on driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
- Drivers who are texting can be more than 20 times more likely to crash than non-distracted drivers.
- Driver distraction was involved in 5,474 fatal crashes in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
What can be done to stop texting while driving?
The Insurance Research Council said that texting while driving is a big-enough problem to warrant new products and services designed to block individual cellphones or smartphones from sending or receiving text messages while in a moving vehicle.
It might take some time before we find the “blocking” of text messages. We need to consider other measures such as strict traffic enforcement and creating more awareness on the dangers of distracted driving!
We would like to urge all car insurers to spread the word and share information available from these sections on the Arrive Alive website:
Avoiding distractions while driving
Texting and distracted driving
Pedestrian distractions and road safety