The 100-car Naturalistic Driving Study was the first of its kind and carefully constructed to be as natural as possible for participants. Most of the drivers were behind the wheels of their own cars.
The result was nearly 42,300 hours of data covering approximately 2,000,000 miles of driving by 241 drivers, of which 109 were considered primary drivers.
The study indicated that driver inattention factored into some 93% of rear-end crashes, approximately 80% of all crashes, and about 65% of all “near-crash” situations. Showing some of the difference in naturalistic data collection compared to traditional methods, NHTSA numbers from 2024 say that distracted driving was a factor in only 12% of all police-reported crashes for the year.
