Aggressive driving

• You’ve sorted entertainment and snacks for your passengers and have squeezed all your holiday luggage in the car.
• You’re now ready to head off for your road trip – one hour after you meant to leave.
• Here’s why, what this does to your risk of being injured, and how to plan your road trip to minimise that risk.

1. You think you’ll get there faster

• In fact drivers overestimate how much time they save by driving faster.
• In a study where global positioning systems were fitted to willing participants’ cars, on average drivers saved only two minutes travel time each week by driving faster than the speed limit.

2. You take risks, not just while driving

• Repeat offenders are more likely to be men, younger or previously involved in a crash.
• This is because these personality traits are linked to risky behaviours generally, and not just behind the wheel.

3. You and your friends think speeding’s OK

• Drivers who usually speed see this as socially acceptable and have friends or family who also speed.
• They think speeding is socially acceptable, and the chances of being caught or having a crash are low.

4. You’re reacting to what’s happening today

• Another important contributor to speeding is what’s happening at the time, and how drivers feel about it.
• Speeding may also be part of an aggressive driving style, an aggressive reaction to frustrating driving situations, or something that happened before the driver got in the car.

Speeding’s risky (even just a little over the limit)

• However, even putting your foot down just a little bit jeopardises you and your passengers’ safety, as well as the safety of others on the road.
• That is when, just before the crash, one vehicle was driving 20km/h or more above the speed limit.

How to avoid speeding this summer

If you’re planning a road trip this summer, you can:
You can also find ways to manage frustration or anger that can lead to speeding:
Possibly my favourite strategy is to remember that someone is waiting for you and they want you to arrive safely.
Amanda Stephens does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• OTTAWA, ON, Dec. 14, 2023 /CNW/ - Keeping Canadians safe on the road is a top priority for the Government of Canada.
• Today, the Minister of Transport, Pablo Rodriguez, announced a new call for proposals under this Program.
• The call is open to private sector enterprises, academia, safety organizations, non-governmental organizations, or other orders of government in Canada.
• Proposals supporting safety initiatives for vulnerable road users, commercial motor vehicles, road safety enforcement, and emerging technologies will also be accepted for consideration.

• Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the world’s largest telematics service provider, today announced the availability of its 2023 distracted driving report: The State of Distracted Driving in 2023 & the Future of Road Safety .
• CMT’s data shows that every 10% increase in distracted driving kills over 420 people and costs the American economy $4 billion per year.
• With the 23% surge in distraction since 2020, CMT estimates that the increase in distracted driving caused an additional 420,000 crashes, 1,000 fatalities, and $10 billion in damages to the US economy in 2022.
• In one study across 30,000 drivers, CMT found that drivers who received feedback on their distracted driving behaviors were 25% less distracted.

• "MobileMule AI" offers a complete safety solution for fleets, including driver monitoring, road recording and event uploading.
• Furthermore, the system enables fleet owners to prevent accidents by real-time driver alerts in cases of distraction, fatigue, phone use and aggressive driving.
• Safe Fleet is the leading provider of safety solutions for fleet vehicles.
• "The agreement with Jungo helps us deliver a game-changing, and potential life-saving driver intervention system to the North American Commercial vehicle market," says Joseph Schechter, Vice President, Rear View Safety, a Safe Fleet brand."