Insurance Insight: Safe Driving Habits

With the New Year brings new hopes and dreams for our families. It’s always an invigorating time! With that being said, there’s no better time to focus on safe driving habits to ensure your family arrives home safely. There’s no greater risk to safe driving than distractions, like the radio, navigation systems, and cell phones. Recently, a survey done by State Farm showed that drivers admit to using their phone when behind the wheel.

The sixth annual State Farm Distracted Survey digs deeper into drivers’ cellphone habits. Though a large majority of drivers support laws prohibiting cellphone use while driving one thing is apparent: people are still using them. Among drivers who indicated they use their cellphone while driving, this is what we learned:

Percentage of drivers who say they are more likely to use their cellphone when:

• Stopped at a red light – 63%
• On an open highway – 30%

Percentage of drivers who say they’re less likely to use their cellphone under these conditions:

• Dark outside – 75%
• Fog – 91%
• Snow – 92%
• Icy – 93%
• Heavy traffic – 78%
• Construction zone – 87%
• Rain – 88%
• School zone – 83%

One particularly troubling finding: at least ten percent of respondents reported that driving in school zones and construction zones has no impact on their cellphone use.

For six years State Farm has been conducting this survey of people’s attitudes and behaviors when it comes to cellphone use while driving, and trends have emerged.

• There has been a steady reduction in the number of drivers talking on a hand-held cell phone.
• The number of people who report texting while driving has remained stable over six years.
• Smartphone ownership is growing. In 2011, 52 percent of drivers reported owning a smartphone, and by 2014 that number grew to 80 percent. We see the greatest increases in smartphone ownership among adults age 40 and older.
• Smartphones create new distractions. There is a significant increase over six years in drivers using their phones for: accessing the Internet, reading email, responding to email, programming and listening to a navigation system and reading social media.
• Drivers are more likely to talk on a hand-held phone than they are to text message while driving. Both of these activities are the greatest for drivers ages 18-29 and decreased as the age of drivers increased.
• There has been an increase in the percentage of drivers who say they talk on a hands-free cellphone while driving. This is possibly due to advances in hands-free technology and enactment of laws restricting hand-held use.

I recently partnered with Bryant High School in promoting safe driving habits during Homecoming week. The program was called Celebrate My Drive, and the slogan we taught was 2N2 (keep two eyes on the road and two hands on the wheel). I look forward to doing it again in 2015. Anything we can do to keep drivers safe I’ll do, especially our youth. As we know, practicing good habits during the adolescence stage usually produces those same good habits during adulthood.

With all of this being said, technology is a great thing! It has advanced us in ways that we never dreamed possible. It’s our obligation to use it appropriately and be respectful of those around us. There’s no greater gift than the gift of life. We should do all we can to protect it.