The Life360 Distracted Driving Report 2019

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that at least 3,166 people were killed in distracted driving crashes in 2017, including texting and driving. This is particularly more concerning for parents, as virtually all teens (95 percent) have a smartphone, according to PEW Research Center.

Distracted driving is a big problem in this country – among young adults and seasoned drivers alike as the study finds – reinforcing the need for better awareness, education and smart technology like Life360.

To drive awareness around Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April, Life360 has released a 2019 Distracted Driving Report, based on an analysis of more than 84 billion miles of driving data and 27 billion distracted drives (as categorized by number of times a user touched their phone while driving). The study was conducted in February 2019, and the data was pooled from a national sample of 844,000 Life360 users over the 2018 calendar year. 

A few interesting highlights from Life360’s 2019 Distracted Driving Report:

Distracted drivers speed (a lot): Distracted drivers are 21 times more likely to drive faster than the posted speed limit; 12 times more likely to rapidly accelerate; and 7 times more likely to hard brake.                 

Distracted driving runs in the family: Phone usage by teens and their parents are almost equal. Teens have interacted with their smartphones 9 times in 100 miles, while their parents have used their device 8 times inside of 100 miles. Similarly, parents speed only 7 percent less often than teens: 23 times per 100 miles compared to 25 times per 100 miles for teens.

We’re more distracted as the day goes on: According to Life360, morning commuters (6 to 8am) are more focused on the road than afternoon rush-hour drivers, which are twice as likely to use their phones during their commute (4 to 6pm). Late night drivers are the most distracted, especially between 11pm and 1am, with 1 phone interaction per every 10 miles! The worst time for bad driving behaviors – including hard braking and rapid acceleration — occurs in the middle of the night (between 3am and 4am) or Saturdays and Sundays.

The comprehensive survey results can be found in the infographic below, which includes most and least distracted drivers by city and state. Life360 believes the first step to becoming a better driver is knowing your bad driving habits and offers personalized weekly distracted driving reports through their Driver Protect Plan. These reports are great for families with new drivers; they show speed, texting and driving, hard braking and more. Life360 does a great job making the reports easily accessible in their newly launched Safety Tab – an updated centralized hub for all premium features that can be accessed in just one tap. Life360 is a great tool to arm families with the information they need to become safer drivers and teach the next generation how to focus on the road…not their phones.

Written by guest blogger: Marc Saltzman, technology evangelist, journalist, author, TV and radio host.