A recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) in collaboration with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has produced some interesting statistics on the role of driver inattention or distraction in crash and ‘near-crash’ incidents.

This was a ground-breaking study in terms of its use of technology and in the recording of ‘near-crash’ events, covering over 2 million vehicle miles and more than 42,000 hours of driving data.

Some of the conclusions of this study were:

  • Almost 80% of crashes and 65% of near-crashes involved driver inattention immediately before (< 3 seconds) the event
  • Visual inattention/distraction was a contributory factor  in over 90% of ‘rear-end’ type events
  • Driver tiredness was a contributory factor in 20% of crashes 
  • Judgement error was much more prevalent in the youngest age groups

A summary of the study findings can be found here: http://www.vtti.vt.edu/PDF/100-Car_Fact-Sheet.pdf

Find out more about the Blank-IT distracted driving solution at: https://www.blank-it.com