Risky driving behaviors remain at elevated levels. Improvements in technology are assisting companies with optimizing their fleets to reduce accidents and save lives.
A new "State of the Data" report from Lytx analyzed its Vision Platform data for fleets, which comprises of 2.1 million drivers in 85 countries. The telematics platform provider also derived insight from 145 million events and more than 55 billion minutes of dashcam video.
“Over the last four years, due in large part to COVID-19 and global supply chain disruptions, we have experienced unprecedented changes in driving behaviors,” said David Riordan, Lytx executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise.
Lytx reported that as" traffic returned to pre-pandemic levels on the roads, drivers showed measurably safer and more attentive driving habits, which led to a reduction in the number of collisions per miles driven.
When comparing pre-pandemic 2019 with the year 2022, the National Safety Council stated that fatalities on U.S. roadways jumped 22 percent.
The report showed that risky driving behaviors improved 29 percent when comparing the pre-pandemic 2019 to 2022. The company further also noted collisions per 1,000,000 miles driven fell 23.1 percent from 2019 to 2022.
Certain risky driving behaviors improved from 2021 to 2022. Not scanning the roadway was down 18 percent, while "blank staring" decreased 16 percent.
The following were the five most improved risky driving behaviors from 2021 to 2022
Not scanning roadway | Down 18% |
Blank stare | Down 16% |
Driving too fast for conditions, | Down 11% |
Driver unbelted on a residential road | Down 10% |
Veering off identifiable roadway | Down 9% |
"While various driving habits improved over the last year, “driving too fast for conditions” was also the number one improved risky driving habit comparing 2022 to 2020, down 52%, and number two down 74%, comparing 2022 to 2019," Lytx stated.
Other highlights included driving data at airports. Fourteen out of 30 of the highest-risk sections of public and private roadways were within two miles of airports, in 2022, the report stated.
The proximity of dangerous roadways to airports jumped 86 percent from 2021, when eight of the top 30 highest-risk roadways were near airports.
Kyle Warlick, Senior Client Intelligence Analyst at Lytx, commented that “Airports likely stand out as having among the more dangerous roadways due to several factors, including the high number of intersections and transitions, the high percentage of drivers unfamiliar with the routes, the high concentration of cars, and of course, hurried or distracted behaviors such as looking at mobile phones."
The report also examined the times of day or night in which collisions occurred. Lytx stated that most fleet collisions happened during daytime hours, which the most accidents occurring around 11 a.m.
Tuesdays were the most common days for vehicle collisions in 2022, according to the report. Saturdays and Sundays were the "safest" days of the week.
"Findings suggest that high weekday commute traffic very closely correlated to higher numbers of collisions and was further supported by weekend lows," the company noted.