SAN DIEGO - Newly released research from SmartDrive Systems concludes that for the quarter ending June 30 of this year, the incidence of distracted driving among new drivers in the SmartDrive Safety program was 11.8 percent. That's a 9-percent increase compared to the distraction rate reported in the first quarter of 2010.

SmartDrive Systems is a leader in fleet safety and operational efficiency. The company on Aug. 19 released its latest SmartDrive Distracted Driving Index, a quarterly benchmark of commercial fleet driving distraction rates. SmartDrive will also be providing its findings at the U.S. Department of Transportation's 2010 Distracted Driving Summit, scheduled for Sept. 21 in Washington, D.C. 

The company's safety program tracks more than 21,000 commercial drivers and more than 3.5 million video events. Drowsiness and running stoplights and stop signs top the list of potential factors in near collisions.

The SmartDrive Distracted Driving Index (SDDI) provides fleet safety professionals with an ongoing measurement of causes and trends in distracted driving behaviors to help them put safer drivers on the road.

The SDDI data is derived from the SmartDrive Safety program, which uses in-vehicle recorders to capture video, audio and vehicle data during sudden stops, swerves, collisions and other events. Event data is categorized and scored according to 50-plus safety observations. The SDDI data compares drivers in their first three weeks on the SmartDrive Safety program with drivers who have benefited from more time in the program.

The study evaluated more than 3.51 million video events recorded in April, May and June of 2010, involving 21,456 commercial drivers. Through detailed video analysis, SmartDrive is able to quantify distractions such as cell phone usage, text messaging, use of maps or navigation, eating/drinking/smoking, and other actions.

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For the second quarter of 2010, the SmartDrive Distracted Driving Index shows that:

• The overall distraction rate for new drivers was 11.8 percent in Q2 2010, up from almost 10.8 percent in Q1 2010 

• The five most common distractions, and their changes from Q1, were:  

-- Object in hand = 3.9 percent, down 11 percent

-- Handheld mobile phone = 1.9 percent, up 27 percent

-- Beverage = 1.6 percent, up 7 percent

-- Smoking = 1.3 percent, up 30 percent

-- Operating handheld device = 1.1 percent, up 38 percent 

The distracted driving rate across long-term drivers in the SmartDrive Safety program in the latest SDDI was just 5.9 percent -- 50 percent lower than the rate for drivers new to the program in Q2 2010. SmartDrive pointed to that as evidence that companies are effectively working with drivers to reduce driving distractions.

The SmartDrive Distracted Driving Index points to a trend across all companies: Among the 5 percent of new drivers with the most distractions, a distraction was observed 70 percent of the time when a risky driving event was recorded. This 5 percent of new drivers group accounted for 33 percent of all recorded distracted driving incidents, while 10 percent of the new drivers accounted for more than 56 percent of all risky driving events during Q2.

"The SmartDrive Safety program helps identify these behaviors early on, so drivers can be coached to correct these behaviors, before a serious event occurs. Early identification and training can have an immediate impact on a participating company's bottom line," SmartDrive Systems President Jason Palmer said.

Two distractions in particular continue to plague some new drivers -- operating a handheld device and using a handheld mobile phone. In both instances just 5 percent of the new drivers in Q2 2010 accounted for the majority of events involving those devices -- 57 percent of all mobile phone incidents captured and 47 percent of all operating-handheld-device incidents. This highlights the importance of catching these behaviors and working with drivers to correct them. Seventy-six percent of the drivers in the SmartDrive Safety program never had an incident involving either a mobile phone or a handheld device.

This quarter, the Distracted Driving Index report was expanded to include an analysis of near-collisions by all drivers and the behaviors that led up to those events. By analyzing in-cab activity captured on video in the 15 seconds prior to those events, evaluators were able to observe several behaviors associated with the near-collisions. The four most common behaviors observed in near-collision events in Q2 were drowsiness/falling asleep, running through a stoplight or stop sign, engaging in a lane change (merging or passing) and following at an unsafe distance.

Drowsiness was 23.2 times more likely to occur in near-collision events than in events that were not categorized as near collisions. Running stoplights or stop signs was 13.3 times more likely. These observed behaviors may well be contributing factors to near-collision events, and as such, represent areas on which companies may wish to focus more attention and training, Palmer explained.

"The SmartDrive Distracted Driving Index is a valuable tool in understanding the causes of and trends in commercial driving distraction," Palmer said. "It's based on the world's largest and fastest-growing database of captured distracted driving behaviors -- more than 33 million of them. We are mining this vast storehouse of information to help fleets improve safety and efficiency, reduce distracted driving incidents and save lives."

The next update to the index will be published early in the fourth quarter of this year.