Key Takeaways:
- Drivers with a texting or distracted driving violation are penalized by insurance companies with an average increase of 27% in annual premiums.
- Teens are especially susceptible to texting and driving which can have long-term consequences if there is an accident or someone is injured.
- Texting while driving is illegal in most states and carries significant fines and driving record point penalties.
Since the pandemic, texting and personal screen time has skyrocketed. All age groups are using texting and direct messaging for the bulk of their social interaction. In fact, 95% of text messages are read and responded to in under five minutes.
In addition, while 63% of people rely on text messaging, many more are also using messaging services to communicate as well. Facebook Messenger, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Snapchat, Slack, WhatsApp, and more, all provide ways to direct message people through their smartphone apps.
Unfortunately, with this level of saturation, texting impacts driving by creating distracted drivers and increasing the number of accidents caused while looking at a smartphone screen. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that over 3,000 people are killed each year in text-related driving accidents.
Regardless of the near nation-wide ban on driving and texting, people continue to keep an eye on their screens while risking an immediate ticket (with associated fines and point reductions), as well as potential auto insurance rate increases, and significant financial repercussions if they cause an accident.
The True Cost of Texting While Driving – Fines, Points, and Increased Insurance Premiums
A distracted driving violation and ticket can increase your insurance rate by an average of 27% for up to three years and sometimes more. In comparison, Careless Driving can increase your annual insurance premiums by 22%, DUI/DWI up to 19%, and Speeding (30+ miles above the legal limit) up to 15%.
While increases can vary depending on state law and insurance company policies, this could mean that an annual premium for auto insurance of $2,008 would increase to $2,552 or $544 more dollars per year (or $1,632 over three years).
Beyond the increase in insurance premiums, most states have fines (usually from $300 to $1,000) and demerit points (a loss of 4 to 6 points) that affect your driving record and your wallet. For second offenses, many states can impose up to a year in jail. And if there is an accident that results in bodily injury, the fines and points grow exponentially.
In the eyes of the insurance industry, which is predicated on risk assessment and mitigation, it also labels you as a high-risk driver. This means that it is assumed you are more likely to get behind the wheel after drinking and to exhibit high risk driving habits, like speeding, ignoring posted laws, or driving carelessly.
Additional penalties from your insurance carrier can include the loss of insurance discounts, e.g., good driver discount, imposed probationary periods, mandatory supervision, and the potential for outright cancellation of your policy.
Understanding the Financial Impact of Distracted Driving on Insurance Rates
The percentage increase for texting violations vs. other moving violations, like speeding or DUI (e.g., 27% vs. 15%) demonstrates how serious insurance companies regard texting distractions while driving.
On average, a driver takes their attention away AND their eyes off the road for at least five seconds each time they view or answer a text message. That means when you are driving at 55 mph, the distance you cover while distracted equates to the length of a football field.
Additionally, while distracted drivers are responsible for over 25% of auto-related deaths, teen drivers are even more problematic with over 58% of teen crashes caused by texting while driving.
Teenagers vs. Adults – Texting when Driving
It’s certainly not like people haven’t heard plenty about the dangers of texting and driving. However, teenagers are far more likely to exhibit dangerous behaviors when driving just as a matter of due course. Some of the more universal adolescent behaviors and changes that cause accelerated risk taking include:
- Brain Development – Throughout adolescence, our limbic system, which is responsible for pleasure-seeking behaviors develops at a much faster pace than our prefrontal cortex which guides self-control leading to an imbalance. This imbalance can lead people to challenge authority and seek out risky behavior.
In fact, the prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully engage until around 25 years of age. This is also a factor in why insurance is generally more expensive for young people until that age.
- Hormonal Changes – These changes can affect focus and mood, especially in males where increased testosterone stimulates risk taking and more assertive, if not aggressive, behaviors.
- Dopamine Levels – The brains of teenagers release more dopamine making them more susceptible to feelings of excitement and surprise.
- Social Influences – Peer pressure is hyperactive with teenagers, and they can be easily swayed by friends, social norms, and social media. There are dozens of risky, dangerous challenges on TikTok at any given time with swarms of teenagers participating.
- Extreme Thrill Seeking – It seems everyone is in search of the next adrenaline rush, and it often requires getting behind the wheel of a car.
While adolescent risk taking is a factor in texting while driving, insurance companies and state entities offer safe-driving programs designed to mitigate risky driving and texting while driving.
Reviewing the Legal Consequences for Texting While Driving Tickets
Regardless of age, texting while driving can be problematic. You hear that familiar notification and out of sheer habit, reach for your smartphone. It’s not just you. On average, people pick up their phone over 50 times per day to respond to a notification or just to check to see what’s happening.
But if that’s does while driving, you have taken your attention and your eyes away from the task at hand and that can have serious legal ramifications. Let’s take a thorough look at the legal and financial consequences of texting while driving tickets.
- Legal Consequences
- Traffic Violations – Tickets can include points and fines.
- Criminal Charges – If you cause an accident where someone is seriously injured or killed, you can face criminal charges from reckless driving to vehicular manslaughter with jail time an almost certainty.
- Civil Lawsuits – You could be held responsible for someone else’s medical bills, lost wages from work, commercial property damage, and more.
- Increased Insurance Costs – As we have already discussed, a texting while driving ticket can stay on your driving record for three years or more and will definitely figure into how your insurance company assesses risk. It will probably raise your insurance rates by double digit percentages.
- Business Losses – One single texting while driving ticket for a company’s individual driver can raise insurance premiums for an entire fleet of business-use vehicles. This can lead to higher operating costs, delivery disruptions, and customer service issues, including reputational damage.
And in the event of an accident, a business owner could be liable for personal medical bills and lost time wages, property damage, and even be exposed to civil liability.
Be sure you understand the terms of your individual insurance policy by reviewing the specific criteria on distracted driving penalties.
Solutions for You or Your Teen
Separating two things that are individually important in everyone’s lives, like driving and texting, seems like it should be easy when faced with penalties and fines. But who hasn’t picked up their phone when expecting an important business-related message or concern about a child’s safety? Unfortunately, as we’ve seen repeatedly on the news, that could be the split second that changes your life.
Here are some solutions that could keep you and your family safe:
- Pull Over – If you receive a text while driving, pull over to a safe location and park your car so that you can review and answer the message without fear of distraction.
- Appoint Your Passenger – If you have someone in the car with you, appoint them the designated text message person. This doesn’t always solve the problem, but it can help as long as the process doesn’t become distracting.
- Activate One of Your Phone’s Do Not Disturb Features. This will stop notifications so that you can concentrate on driving and save any texts which can be responded to when you arrive at your destination.
- Most smartphones have a do-not-disturb feature that will silence any notifications.
- Use the Driving Focus Feature which turns off notifications and sends an auto-reply message to the texter letting them know you are driving and will respond when you have arrived at your destination. You can go to Settings > Focus > Driving to set the feature.
- Or simply hit the ‘Ringer Off’ button.
- Put Your Phone Away – Make your phone hard to reach—try putting it in the back seat or in the trunk.
- Use Technology – Today, there are numerous apps and devices that can block your cellphone while driving. When choosing a technology, consider these five items:
- Compatibility – Does the technology work with all the handheld devices you and your family use each day?
- Default Settings – Does the technology allow you to adjust settings and disablement times? Prevent a teenager from making unauthorized changes?
- Safety Options – Does it block all devices both incoming and outgoing messaging and internet access? Can it be disabled in the event of an emergency?
- Battery and Power Options – If battery operated, does it leave your smartphone drained?
- Dashboard Operation – Does the app or device have an easy-to-understand human interface that can be quickly negotiated?
- Distracted Driver Policy for Businesses – As a business owner, create a distracted driver policy that has strong repercussions when violated. Be sure that the policy is part of the onboarding process as well as included in any annual safety training held by your company.
- Model Good Behavior – As a parent, model good behavior for your teenager by not driving while texting or using your smartphone.
- Set Boundaries – Set boundaries with your teenagers and hold them accountable. In fact, having them sign a contract that stipulates driving requirements can actually be a good deterrent.
- Consider Telematics – Insurance companies have various programs where they will give you easily-installed telematics devices which monitor driving habits, including frequent braking and other behaviors that might demonstrate how you operate a vehicle while distracted.
A Final Word
When driving, always remember that ‘seconds count.’ There are so many distractions going on around you when you are driving—traffic, radio and podcasts, kids in the back seat, being late for an appointment, a car full of teenagers, etc. It requires every ounce of your attention to keep you and everyone around you safe.
The last thing you need is to be distracted by reading and answering text messages.
As states and insurance companies continue to strengthen their responses to the issue of distracted driving, you can expect trends like wider adoption of mandates for hands-free technology, tiered insurance premiums based on distracted driving risks, and advanced vehicle-based distractions detection systems to alert drivers proactively to danger.
Currently, while many of the enforcement tactics are impactful ‘after the fact,’ we have provided numerous suggestions on how to approach this issue before there is a problem.
As you review your current auto insurance policy to help understand how distracted driving is handled, you can use a marketplace site, like einsurance.com to compare costs and then speak with an expert agent to discuss alternatives and solutions.
Here’s to safe driving!
