By Emani Lawrence
Here’s what you should know about riding in a car, the most dangerous activity you will engage in today: Most traffic injuries and fatalities are not the result of what are typically called “accidents.” They are the direct results of crashes that have a cause — speeding, sudden braking, driver distraction.
And here’s what you should know about what California is doing to prevent the roughly 4,000 lives lost on our roads each year: turning a blind eye to a proven, safe driving technology that is being deployed in 49 other states.
It’s time for California to embrace 21st-century technology that is proven to improve driving habits and save lives for drivers that voluntarily choose to use it.
This technology is called telematics — electronic devices that monitor driving behavior and enable drivers to be more conscious of what they are doing behind the wheel. These devices or smartphone apps track driving behaviors like speeding, sudden braking and phone use behind the wheel.
These insights help drivers improve their habits. They also allow insurers to offer fairer insurance rates based on actual driving habits rather than outdated proxies like traffic citations. A survey by the Insurance Research Council found that 80% of motorists who participate in these programs say they changed their driving habits as a result.
The use of telematics makes everyone safer on the roads, but drivers also have a self-interest in being more attentive to their driving behavior. If the data demonstrates they are safe drivers, they save money on their insurance premiums. A survey by Consumer Reports earlier this year found drivers who use telematics save on average $120 per year on insurance costs, with young, Black and Latino drivers benefitting the most.
California hasn’t provided this option because of outdated insurance regulations that predate the smart technology that today drives much of our state’s economy. The regulations, adopted nearly 40 years ago, require that insurance rates can be based on only three factors: driving record, miles driven and years of driving.
Back then, there were only two ways to evaluate a driving record: crashes and traffic citations. Today, telematics offer a more accurate, unbiased way to determine whether someone is a safe driver — one that isn’t skewed by disparate policing practices in which a disproportionate number of driving citations are issued in low-income neighborhoods.
The Legislature is poised to pass a resolution authored by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood, and co-sponsored by Assemblymember Corey Jackson, D-Moreno Valley, urging California’s Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to develop regulations to give Californians access to this safe-driving incentive. Robust privacy protections must be the cornerstone of these rules — ensuring participation remains fully voluntary, personal privacy is protected and data usage is tightly regulated — just like the safeguards already in place across the rest of the country.
My interest in this issue is deeply personal. I lost nearly a year of my life recovering from a crash in which my car was struck by a driver who was distracted by her phone. Thirteen years earlier, my grandmother had been killed, her car broadsided by a driver who didn’t see a red light because he was talking on his cellphone.
After that tragedy, my mother, Jennifer Smith, became a fierce advocate to raise awareness of the perils of distracted driving. She fought for laws and education campaigns to end this epidemic. But nearly two decades later, we’re still losing lives — and still ignoring one of the best tools we have to save them.
According to the National Safety Council, more than a quarter of all car crashes involve cell phone use. For those of us who have seen and felt the pain of distracted driving, the path forward is clear: we must change driver behavior, and telematics is one of the most effective tools we have to do so.
Insurance Commissioner Lara must act with urgency to bring telematics to California. The technology exists. The results are proven. California drivers deserve the choice to drive safer, save money, and, most importantly, save lives.
Lawrence is an attorney and leader of stopdistractions.org who lives in San Diego.