September 2011, Fleet Financials - Feature

5-Year Analysis: Accident Management Trends

How have accident management statistics changed over the past five years? With increased attention on driver education and distracted driving, you may be surprised by what you see.

By Lauren Fletcher

Accidents impact not only a company's bottom line, but the safety of fleet's greatest resource: its drivers and the vehicles they operate. The past five years have seen an increased focus on driver safety, accident management, and minimizing distracted driving.

Automotive Fleet has been analyzing fleet accident management trends for several years. The following pages review the past five years and are chock full of important trends and data.

Interesting trends that emerged include the age range of drivers involved in accidents and driver tenure, which continue to illustrate just how important continued driver education and training can be.

Between 2006 and 2010, drivers with less than one-year tenure in both the sales and service segments experienced the lowest percentage of accidents - with the exception of 2007 for sales drivers. These statistics help show the necessity of continued driver education, beyond initial training.

Over the past five years, the lowest percentage of accidents occurred on Sunday and Monday, with Friday and Saturday typically showing the highest percentage of accidents. The overall percentage of accidents by day of week has remained constant since 2006, with accidents on Sunday showing the highest percentage decrease.

Seatbelts save lives - and drivers are catching on. Seatbelt use has steadily increased over the past five years from a low of 95.24 percent utilizing a seatbelt during an accident in 2006 to a high of 97.38 percent in 2010.

Overall, the percentage of accidents in which a cell phone was in use has stayed steady over the past five years, dropping 0.02 percentage points, hitting a low point of less than 1 percent in 2009.

Overall, the percentage of drivers in accidents by age group has declined over the past five years, with drivers between 46 and 54 years old and those over the age of 55 experiencing the highest percentage of accidents. Accidents by drivers aged 18-25 have been decreasing year-over-year, while accidents by drivers aged 26-35 and 36-45 have been increasing.