If we already knew that taking calls or reading and sending messages behind the wheel is dangerous, a new study analyzes the risks generated by simple reading of notifications when driving. The results do not leave room for doubt: the risk of accident is much higher.
If we often talk about the impact of telephone conversations while driving, we evoke less that of the notifications that we receive when we are driving. Even if we don’t take our smartphone in hand, consult them reduces our concentration Given to the road and increases the risk of accident.
A study commissioned by prevention insurance and carried out by the Calyxis risk expertise center in May 2025 measured the consequences of driving notifications. To do this, a sample of 24 participants from 18 to 60 years old, regular drivers and smartphone users by car, has been used.
Smartphone on the wheel, risk coupled with accident
The test result is final: a driver multiplies by 2 its risk of accident Looking at his notifications. In detail, accidents are in this case 2.6 times more numerous in town, 1.7 times more on the road and 2 times more on the highway. The report explains that the treatment of a single notification requires an average of 12.7 seconds. “During this time, the gaze alternates between road and screen and essential security checks as a look in the mirrors are completely neglected”is it specified.
To better realize, 12.7 seconds of distraction represent 176 meters blinded at 50 km/h, 282 meters at 80 km/h and 459 meters at 130 km/h. When the smartphone is turned off, “89 % of the driver’s attention is on the road and the mirrors”explains the study. If the mobile is placed on a support, attention on the road and the mirrors drops to 79 %. On an hour of driving, the driver’s gaze is attracted to the smartphone for almost 6 minutes.
“A distraction, whether visual or sound, is enough to compromise the safety of the driver, his passengers and other users”, recall the experts. When you know that a user receives 80 notifications on average per day and that some intensive users may have up to 300 to manage daily, we say that it is better to deactivate them by driving so as not to be constantly asked and decentralized.
According to figures from the Interministerial National Observatory for Road Safety (ONISR), a lack of attention, including the use of the phone while driving, was the cause of 24 % of body accidents in France in 2023 and 23 % in 2022. 390 people lost their lives in 2023 for this reason.
The smartphone, source of four types of distraction
A previous prevention insurance study, published in 2024, told us that 76 % of French drivers use a driving distractor. The smartphone is the most popular of them, and also the most dangerous. It is indeed the only device which combines the four sources of distraction which can divert the attention of a driver, thus described by road safety:
- Visual distraction: The driver leaves the road.
- La distraction cognitive : The driver diverts his attention from the road to distraction.
- Hearing distraction: The driver is no longer attentive to external noises which can prevent him from a possible danger.
- Physical distraction: The driver no longer holds his steering wheel with both hands when he touches his smartphone.
This same study underlined that the use of a distractor as the smartphone multiplies by 13 the time spent making trajectory deviations,
100 % suppresses mirrors and increases the reaction time by 60 %. Adrien Ballet, cognitivist ergonomist, speaks of breaking of cognitive fluence. Reading an SMS or a discussion on the phone generates a diversion of attention, because the brain is not able to be as much as possible in its capabilities on several simultaneous tasks.
Humans are not computers with a multi-core processor, each heart of which could take care of a process by allocating all its resources. Caution is therefore in order. A few months ago, we shared another study that gave tracks and reflections to encourage drivers to reduce their use of smartphone on the wheel.
