IIHS: Speeders Are More Likely to be on Their Cellphones Too

Some drivers aren’t satisfied with just one dangerous on-the-road behavior. New data finds drivers who are speeding are more likely to be on their cellphones.

A study on the relationship between cellphone usage and driving out Tuesday from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that the more drivers exceeded the speed limit, the more they used their phones.

It’s not secret that doing things like talking on the phone while on the road is a dangerous practice. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,021 fatal vehicle crashes involved distracted driving.

The revelation about these two bad driving habits is a new concern, according to the IIHS.

“Until now, safety experts believed drivers used their cellphones most at slower speeds,” stated IIHS President David Harkey. “But data from insurance companies’ safe-driving apps show that, in free-flowing traffic, the opposite is true.”

For every 5 miles per hour over the speed limit, the share of driving time with phone usage on limited-access roads rose by 12%, the group’s data show.

On arterials and roads that connect towns, there was a 3% increase in phone handling for every 5 mph. There was an increase in cellphone usage on roads with higher speed limits. For every 5 mph, there was a 9% increase on limited-access roads with 70 mph limits, according to the study.

On roads with access to freeways, the study found a 3% increase in cellphone use on 45 or 50 mph roads and a 7% increase on 55 mph roads.

“It’s alarming that the relationship between cellphone manipulation and speeding was the strongest on roads with the highest speed limits,” stated IIHS senior research scientist Ian Reagan.

Reagan believes there are several factors that could be involved in creating this exacerbated road danger. Risky drivers are more likely to be dangerous on the road, such as speeding and using their cellphone. Stress could be another factor, like during events such as rush hour or school drop-off, which can cause bad driving behaviors. Other road cues like light traffic, absence of pedestrians and longer gaps between street lights are also factors in cellphone usage, according to Reagan.

The dangers of distracted driving are taught in every driver’s education course, but many drivers admit to doing it anyway, studies have shown.

A recent survey found that nearly nine-in-10 people say unsafe behaviors have increased in the past year, with more complaints of cellphone use, faster driving and more frequent road rage.

Despite the prevalence of these behaviors on the road, most people understand that speeding and distracted driving are unsafe. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety noted that 97% of drivers say that scrolling through social media is not safe while driving, with 94% acknowledging that texting is dangerous and 90% admitting that reading on the phone is a risk.

It can also be costly to drive distracted. The California Highway Patrol issued 111,700 citations for distracted driving in 2024, a 20% increase from 2023, the latest data show.

The IIHS analyzed nearly 600,000 trips between July and October 2024 by drivers across the U.S., excluding Alaska, California, Hawaii and New York. Data was supplied by Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a platform provider.