Publications
Partners
LONDON, England - Recent survey findings from RoadSafe member Ingenie car insurance have shown that 58% of drivers aged 17-25 agree that smartphone applications are causing them to be even more distracted at the wheel.
Yet still they do it!
Ingenie, which specialises in covering young drivers, commissioned the survey of 1000 young drivers which uncovered the potentially lethal extent of how smartphones and social media are distracting youngsters at the wheel.
The survey claimed:
•More than 40% admitted answering their phone while driving without a hands-free set.
•44% said they had sent a text message, 62% that they had read a message while driving.
•One in 6 male drivers under 25 has crashed while using a cellphone the wheel.
•A third of under-25's admitted using Facebook while driving.
•18% of under-25's who have 'Draw Something' on their phone have played the game while driving and 17% 'Angry Birds'.
•Hands-free kits encourage 53% more young drivers to make longer calls at the wheel (longer than vie minutes).
The results collected from the survey suggest that the increasing range of apps and functionality available on mobile devices is contributing to distracting young driver - even mobile games, which take a high level of concentration, are taking young people’s eyes off the road.
Ingenie founder and CEO Richard King said: “We’re in the middle of a perfect storm. The rapid growth of social media and mobile is creating a new breed of in-car distraction. We’re increasingly using smartphones to occupy ourselves during down time but driving is an active pursuit and it really does need our full attention.
"As well as not texting or making calls, we should all pledge not to tweet, update our status or be tempted by anything else our phone has to offer while driving.
"We’re doing our bit to prevent distraction – we won’t send driver feedback messages to your mobile if we know the ignition is on and when our contact centre makes outbound calls, the first question they’ll ask is ‘are you driving?’”
CELEBRITY SUPPORTERS
The survey was commissioned ahead of a #DontDriveDistracted campaign on Twitter to reduce road crashes related to driver distraction. The campaign, launched on April 27, 2012 with celebrity supporters Gary Lineker, Omid Djalili and Williams F1 Team driver Bruno Senna each pledging to cut out distracting behaviour while driving.
For each person in the UK who makes a pledge on Twitter to not drive distracted, ingenie will donate £1 to RoadSafe to be used by RoadSafe to help reduce road deaths and injuries by encouraging innovation for the safe design and use of roads and vehicles.
Lineker, Djalili and Senna have each recorded their own video pledge. Drivers across the UK can then either make a similar pledge or write their own and contribute to Ingenie’s donation to RoadSafe.
Yet still they do it!
Ingenie, which specialises in covering young drivers, commissioned the survey of 1000 young drivers which uncovered the potentially lethal extent of how smartphones and social media are distracting youngsters at the wheel.
The survey claimed:
•More than 40% admitted answering their phone while driving without a hands-free set.
•44% said they had sent a text message, 62% that they had read a message while driving.
•One in 6 male drivers under 25 has crashed while using a cellphone the wheel.
•A third of under-25's admitted using Facebook while driving.
•18% of under-25's who have 'Draw Something' on their phone have played the game while driving and 17% 'Angry Birds'.
•Hands-free kits encourage 53% more young drivers to make longer calls at the wheel (longer than vie minutes).
The results collected from the survey suggest that the increasing range of apps and functionality available on mobile devices is contributing to distracting young driver - even mobile games, which take a high level of concentration, are taking young people’s eyes off the road.
Ingenie founder and CEO Richard King said: “We’re in the middle of a perfect storm. The rapid growth of social media and mobile is creating a new breed of in-car distraction. We’re increasingly using smartphones to occupy ourselves during down time but driving is an active pursuit and it really does need our full attention.
"As well as not texting or making calls, we should all pledge not to tweet, update our status or be tempted by anything else our phone has to offer while driving.
"We’re doing our bit to prevent distraction – we won’t send driver feedback messages to your mobile if we know the ignition is on and when our contact centre makes outbound calls, the first question they’ll ask is ‘are you driving?’”
CELEBRITY SUPPORTERS
The survey was commissioned ahead of a #DontDriveDistracted campaign on Twitter to reduce road crashes related to driver distraction. The campaign, launched on April 27, 2012 with celebrity supporters Gary Lineker, Omid Djalili and Williams F1 Team driver Bruno Senna each pledging to cut out distracting behaviour while driving.
For each person in the UK who makes a pledge on Twitter to not drive distracted, ingenie will donate £1 to RoadSafe to be used by RoadSafe to help reduce road deaths and injuries by encouraging innovation for the safe design and use of roads and vehicles.
Lineker, Djalili and Senna have each recorded their own video pledge. Drivers across the UK can then either make a similar pledge or write their own and contribute to Ingenie’s donation to RoadSafe.
