DriveCam releases insights into solid waste industry

DriveCam continues Driving Insights Series with a look at recurring distracted driving in the waste industry. The key finding in our analysis shows drivers who have been involved in a collision are two times as likely to regularly eat and/or drink while driving compared to those drivers who have not been involved in a collision.

Regular handheld cell use has nearly as high a probability as regular eating and drinking. Drivers who regularly use a handheld cell are 1.8 times more likely to have been in a collision. Drivers involved in one or more collisions are:

• 2.0 times more likely to be regularly distracted by food and/or drinks.
• 1.8 times more likely to be regularly distracted by a handheld cell phone.
• 1.6 times more likely to be regularly distracted by a hands-free cell device.
• 1.6 times more likely to be regularly distracted by any type of identified distraction.

The study focused on the analysis of over 7,000 drivers in the waste industry who were active between June 2009 and June 2010. The difference between collision and non-collision drivers’ distracted driving behaviors was evaluated for this study in order to identify the distractions with a statistically significant difference. Once these distractions were identified, the probability of a collision given the number of times the distraction was observed was calculated.