Lytx Releases New Insights into Distracted Driving Among Commercial Drivers

Multi-tasking–eating, drinking, smoking and using a phone–increases risk by 100 percent

Timed with National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, Lytx^®, a leading global provider of video telematics, analytics, productivity and safety solutions for commercial and public sector fleets, today announced new information about commercial driving and distraction.

The National Safety Council’s Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April is an effort to recognize the dangers of and eliminate preventable deaths from distracted driving. Every day, at least nine Americans die in distracted driving crashes. In commercial vehicle fleets, distraction (related to cell phone use, eating or general inattention) is the second leading driver-related cause of fatal truck crashes.ⁱ

Lytx is committed to supporting fleets’ efforts to keep their drivers and our roadways safer by identifying and helping mitigate the risks of distracted driving.

“There are 6.1 million commercial motor vehicle drivers in the United States, and millions more around the world,” said Brandon Nixon, Lytx chairman and CEO. “Our dream is that no commercial driver will ever be the cause of a collision. Through the work we’re doing to help fleets stay safe, we have a great opportunity to make that dream a reality. We use our billions of miles of driving data to train artificial intelligence algorithms to detect risk, and we use our advanced data analytics to identify risky behaviors and help fleets do something about distracted driving.”

With the scale of the company’s collected data of more than 100 billion miles of driving data and 100,000 risky driving events captured by video every day, combined with its machine vision and artificial intelligence technology, Lytx is unrivaled in its ability to provide fleets with the knowledge needed to help protect drivers and improve their driving behavior.

Lytx clients experienced approximately 625,000 fewer instances of risky driving in 2018 compared to 2017. The company’s Driver Safety Program has been associated with up to a 50 percent reduction in collisions and up to 80 percent reduction in collision-related costs, reports CAHI.org.

Lytx Data Identifies Trends in Risky and Distracted Driving

• Risky behaviors behind the wheel tend to cluster, meaning drivers who engage in one potentially risky behavior are often found engaging in other risky behaviors at the same time. For instance, drivers who eat while driving also tend to drive unbelted or follow the vehicle in front of them too closely. Lytx found that 23 percent of all its scored events included a driver engaging in multiple potentially risky behaviors. 
• While 65 percent of all cell phone use was hands-free in 2018, up from 27 percent in 2016, Lytx also found a 13 percent increase in the overall volume of risky driving behavior involving handheld cell phones during the same timeframe.
• Lytx found a 10 percent increase in the overall volume of events in which drivers using hands-free devices engaged in one or more other potentially risky distractions as well, such as eating, drinking, smoking or using another device.
• This combination of distractions magnifies risk. A multi-tasking driver engaged in multiple potentially risky distracting behaviors has a 100 percent increase in risk over a driver engaged in one potentially risky, distracting behavior.
• Driver cell phone use occurs most frequently at 65 miles per hour (mph).

“Identifying the underlying causes of risky behaviors and addressing the dangers of multi-tasking are crucial first steps to training safer drivers,” said Del Lisk, vice president of safety services at Lytx. “We recommend managers help their drivers understand the elevated risks around them, especially during peak times associated with distraction. Also, by advising drivers to make their calls or appointments before they start driving, managers can encourage them to avoid giving into these temptations.”

Lisk continued, “One of our clients confidentially surveyed their drivers about their use of hand-held cell phones while driving. Through this survey, they discovered that more than half of all calls to their drivers were initiated by family members–the people who love them the most unknowingly potentially putting them in harms way. The company followed up with a program focused on educating families on the risks associated with calling their loved ones while they were driving. This is a great example of how looking for the underlying causes of risky behaviors can uncover important information. These lessons aren’t just for professional drivers. In recognition of Distracted Driving Awareness Month, we can all play our part in fighting temptations on the road.”

About the Data
Insights are derived from Lytx’s client database, including public and private fleets in the trucking, waste, transit, government, construction, field services industries, and more. The 2018 data is anonymized, normalized and generalizable to drivers given the high volume of Lytx event recorders on domestic urban, residential and rural roadways.

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