SAN DIEGO - DriveCam has released a report, using its own data, on the top driving behaviors that contribute to drivers in state and municipal fleets getting involved in accidents.

The report found the behavior DriveCam most frequently observed was drivers not looking far enough ahead down the road (at 58.2%). The next most-observed behavior was following too close at a distance of 1-2 seconds. The least-observed behavior was running a stop sign (only 5.8%), though running a red light was more common (7.8%). Not wearing a seatbelt was still a somewhat common behavior, at 21.4% of observed drivers doing this. Also, 6.1% of drivers failed to keep an eye out and pay attention to traffic conditions.

As for how these behaviors contribute to collisions, to start, a driver was 1.5 times more likely to be involved in a low-severity collision if he or she failed to keep an eye out, and 1.6 more times likely to be involved in a severe collision. Next, following too close for 3-4 seconds made drivers 1.5 times more likely to be involved in a low-severity collision.

A major contributor to the likelihood of being involved in a severe collision was being distracted by a communications device of some kind, increasing the likelihood by 2.1 times. Interestingly, being distracted by a handheld cellular device only increased the likelihood of a severe collision by 1.6 times by comparison.

You can read the full report here.

The report provides an analysis of data from more than 8,000 drivers from 10 public works fleets that the company collected between Jan. 1, 2010 and June 30, 2012. The data included more than 1,800 collision videos and 400,000 non-collision video events, according to the company.

DriveCam also released a study on refuse fleets in 2010.

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