Dangerous driving confessions survey

Speeding, drink driving, driving while fatigued or intoxicated, not wearing a seatbelt – all of these are classed as human error, and the majority of road accidents are believed to be caused by human error.¹

Driving distracted, such as using a phone behind the wheel, could increase the likelihood of a crash. The World Health Organization notes drivers using mobile phones are four times more likely to be in a car crash.²

So, how common is mobile phone use while driving? Are we really the good and safe drivers we think we are?

As car insurance comparison experts, we surveyed over 3,000 adults across Australia, Canada and the USA, asking them for their dangerous driving confessions, and how they would rate their own driving.

Here are the results.

Which country rates themselves as the safest drivers?

When asked to self-assess their driving, most people said they were good or great. Americans were the most likely to give themselves full marks, with almost half of Americans surveyed rating themselves as great and safe drivers, while 30.7% said they were good but could be better.

For the Canadian cohort, 44.9% said they were great and safe drivers, and 34.3% said they only had a little to improve on, while in Australia it was 42.2% and 37.9% respectively.

Most common dangerous driving behaviour

Despite most people having good opinions of their driving abilities, over three-quarters admit to driving behaviours that can be viewed as distracted or outright dangerous, across all countries.

The top three behaviours were eating and drinking (non-alcoholic beverages), speeding and driving while tired. Eating and drinking accounted for 58.2% of Americans, 56.0% of Canadians and 54.7% of Australians. Americans were slightly more likely to speed at 47.0%, followed by 46.4% of Canadians and 44.9% of Australians, and Americans were more likely to drive while tired. This accounted for 41.4% of American drivers compared to 38.6% of Canadians and 38.2% of Australians.

In general, Americans were the most likely to confess to one of the behaviours surveyed, while Australians were typically the least likely – except for reaching into the backseat and running a red light, where Australians overtook Canada, but didn’t beat America.

Most response rates across the three countries were fairly close, but there were some answers that saw sizable differences between the countries. Driving without a seatbelt saw the biggest gap in responses, with 21.1% of Americans admitting this, compared to 13.5% of Canadians and only 5.2% of Australian drivers.

How do we use our mobile phones while driving?

There are strict road rules on using mobile phones while driving in all three countries, but these can differ between jurisdictions. Drivers are typically allowed to use mobile phones while driving for hands-free phone calls, navigation, music and in some specific circumstances like paying for food at a restaurant drive-thru.³

But is that how we’re using our mobile phones? According to the survey, there are plenty of drivers who confess to mobile phone use that could be deemed distracting – and potentially illegal.

While music, maps and phone calls were some of the most common, a number of respondents in all three countries admitted to using their phones to text, view social media, email and navigate work-related apps like Microsoft Teams.

Texting was the most common use of mobiles while driving in Australia (45.2%), ahead of those who use maps and navigation (42.5%). Likewise, in America, 48.5% admitted to texting, while only 45.9% used their mobile phones for navigation.

In contrast, maps and navigation was the number one use of a phone while driving in Canada at 42.3%, compared to 41.9% who admitted to texting and messaging while driving.