Today an alarming one in four reported car accidents involves a distracted driver using a cell phone. [1]
Additionally, a disproportionate percentage of young people are involved in fatal crashes due to distracted driving. Specifically ages 15-39 fall into the high risk group where Cell Phone Use and Distracted Driver percentages exceed their Percentage of Total Drivers:
Compounding the problem is the fact that most think of using their cell phone while driving as minor “no no” versus an act that is totally unacceptable. This is coupled with the fact that cell phones are now fully integrated with our lives, creating a perfect storm and recipe for disaster.
The LifeSaver team has been obsessed with solutions for this problem for more than 2 years. We are pleased to share some meaningful progress based on our recent research evaluating over 25,000 drives with LifeSaver covering over 150,000 miles of driving.
Each of the 25,000 drives was captured by LifeSaver and each contained a ‘start drive time’, ‘end drive time’, and ‘length of time’ indicating the LifeSaver app was fully functional for each these 25,000 drives.
Additionally, LifeSaver captured any Emergency Unlocks of the device during each Drive. When no Unlock is recorded, it is an indication the phone is not being touched (display off), or the display is on but the LifeSaver Lock screen is present.
After evaluating these drives we found that less than 1.5% of LifeSaver drivers unlocked the mobile device while the car was in motion during a drive. In other words, this means 98.5% of drivers with the LifeSaver app installed are driving with much less mobile device distraction while the car is in motion. Furthermore, in drives varying in length greater than 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes, there was very little difference in the number of drives where people unlocked their device. For drives of 30 minutes or greater, we found the unlock rate to be just 1.23%, lower than the overall average.
Given that one in four teens admit to texting and driving each time they drive, we view this as a huge opportunity to deter distracted driving:
Source (One in Four Teens): University of Michigan / Toyota 2012 Teen Driver Distraction Study
LifeSaver’s ‘unlock’ button is defaulted on to allow the driver to unlock his or her phone in a true emergency. Even with the option for drivers to use the “emergency unlock” button, our findings show that most drivers do not abuse this option.
The Free LifeSaver app automatically deters and measures distracted driving on iPhone and Android devices in a non-intrusive way. By using the new dashboard in the driver portal, both parents and loved ones can measure, score, and reward for better driving.
LifeSaver is obsessed with solving distracted driving.
[1] National Safety Council’s 2012 Annual Estimate.
