All Europeans are distracted on the road and admit to taking their eyes off the road even at high speed, and losing concentration while driving. This is what emerges from the twelfth edition of the “Barometer of responsible driving” signed by the Vinci Autoroutes Foundation, created by Ipsos, from a sample of 12 people residing in 400 European countries. Disconcerting, but not unexpected.
The study found that distraction is the biggest threat to road safety: 82% of respondents admitted to looking away from the road for more than two seconds (which at 130 km/h equates to at least 72 meters in driving blind). In France, this number increased to 84% of drivers with this alarming admission. But that's not all, because 53% admitted that they sometimes pay little attention to driving and let their minds wander. 75% of those questioned confirmed using their smartphone while driving, and 12% had already had or risked having an accident because of the phone.
The Vinci Foundation looked at French motorists, because from January to today no less than four gendarmes have died in the exercise of their duty on the highways, and the average of accidents involving emergency vehicles is two per week.
And the least we can say is that we are not setting an example: 61% of motorists admit to using the phone while driving to make calls (7% more than in 2018), most (55 %) do it with a Bluetooth system, but a good 20% hold it by hand. 31% of French people in the sample use their smartphone to read or send messages (no big surprise, more than half are under 35) and 11% use it to attend remote meetings. The most surprising figure, however, is that 8% of French people surveyed admit to using their smartphone to watch films or videos while driving!
Another factor that Vinci investigated is that of sleepiness: 42% of the European sample admit to driving even when very tired and 39% think they do it as well as when rested. 42% prefer to continue driving non-stop during long journeys and 14% admit to having had or risked having an accident due to fatigue at the wheel.
However, 97% of the sample believe they drive well, half admit to insulting other drivers and 84% to be afraid of aggressive behavior from other drivers. 22% revealed a tendency to get out of the vehicle to explain themselves in the event of misunderstanding on the road.
The Vinci Foundation has found that too high a percentage of motorists behave incorrectly and potentially at risk on the road. In particular, 60% do not respect the safety distance, 53% forget to put on the indicator to overtake or change direction, 52% travel in the middle lane on the motorway when the right lane is free.
Bernadette Moreau, regional delegate of the Foundation, concludes: “Attracted by external demands and falsely reassured by connected equipment, drivers forget a fundamental rule: when driving, you must monitor the road and be fully attentive to the road environment in order to react at any time to an unexpected event. This need is absolutely incompatible with a loss of attention due to telephone conversations, fatigue or distractions that cause one to look away from the road.”
Accidents and near-misses linked to smartphone use might be one of the best barometers of driver behavior – and apparently the editors of the da Vinci survey thought so too. In 2022, the survey found that 12% of respondents said they had already had or narrowly avoided an accident that they believed could be blamed on mobile phone use.
