Drivers who use their phones behind the wheel are 240% more likely to be involved in a crash, according to a new report that describes how predictive analytics can help prevent such incidents.
The report, released by the Governors Highway Safety Association and Cambridge Mobile Telematics, focuses on how telematics risk analysis, or TRA, can use physics and AI-based tools to measure patterns of risk on the road.
“TRA is an amazing opportunity for us to be able to predict and prevent crashes, versus how we’ve been dealing with highway safety, which has been to respond to a crash, a death or an injury that has already occurred,” said Caroline Cash, chief communications officer with the Governors Highway Safety Association.
How does it work?
“It’s sensors in your car, it’s information in your phone, like when you’re using GPS,” Cash said. “So it’s all anonymous data, but it can predict patterns.”
He said the use of the technology can help identify potential traffic safety problems that might not otherwise be apparent.
“Let’s say they predict a pattern that cars are hard-braking at one location. They can send a crew to that location and find that a stop sign was knocked over in a crash that was never reported,” Cash said. “They can repair that stop sign before there’s a fatality or a crash at that intersection.”
The technology can point out patterns that indicate safety problems, which can lead to an inexpensive, quick fix.
“Say people are swerving late at night on a road without street lamps — that’s an indicator that the white mark on the side of the road has faded, and people don’t see the edge of the road,” Cash said. “So, if they have a pattern of cars swerving and correcting back onto the road, they can dispatch a crew, see that the paint needs fixing, and save lives before there’s a rollover crash.”
Cash said insurance companies have been using sensors for years in determining the risk of insuring drivers: “That’s not been AI-based — that’s been data-based.”
The telematics risk assessment “is new to us in the traffic safety realm, to be able to use it in a way that saves lives.”
Cash said the predictive nature can help public officials determine if a project, program or law is actually saving lives.
“You can collect data before you pass the law, then collect data afterwards to see if that law was effective,” Cash said.
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