The COVID-19 pandemic encouraged a variety of enhanced safety practices — such as washing hands more frequently and social distancing. Safer driving, however, was not necessarily one of these practices. With traffic congestion down 73% in 2020, according to data from Inrix’s 2020 Global Traffic Scorecard. Therefore, both personal and commercial vehicle drivers had more opportunities to push the limits of safety.
In an analysis specifically of commercial driving behavior during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Teletrac Navman found a 17% increase in speeding, a 10% increase in failures to stop at stop signs and a 15% increase in harsh-cornering events.