Are we focused on the wrong highway safety issues?

Lately all of our public attention on highway safety seems to be focused on the issue of distracted driving, specifically smartphone use while driving. Yet the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s data indicates that other driver behaviors like speeding, intoxication, drifting, running intersections are seven times more likely to get you killed than distracted driving.

The good news is that coming automated driving technology addresses all of these risks. This technology will have major impact on the insurance industry as well as on the lives of commuters in the relatively near future.

This graphic on the factors contributing to fatal crashes comes from The Wall Street Journal.