Smartphone data helps Ohio ‘be smarter’ about reducing distracted driving
globalmoments vai Getty Images
The Ohio Department of Transportation is leveraging data from smartphones and sensors to inform the state’s strategies to tackle distracted driving.
After more than a decade of seeing traffic deaths escalate, Ohio has started to see such fatalities subside, and telematics data is playing a critical part in helping state leaders bring those numbers down, one Ohio official says.
Beginning in 2013, the rate of traffic deaths and crashes began to trend upwards in the Buckeye State, said Michelle May, highway safety program manager at the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Office of Transportation and Economic Development. Several factors have driven that increase, but she underscored the rise in smartphone adoption among Americans as a particularly notable influence.
“As people started to acquire more smartphones, they became comfortable using them behind the wheel — despite the fact that it was dangerous,” May explained.
Ohio has recently strengthened its efforts to curb phone use while driving, from increased educational campaigns to passing legislation in 2023 that prohibits people from using or holding a mobile device while driving on state roads.
ODOT has an annual budget of $585 million to prevent traffic fatalities and injuries, and now with telematics data “we know what people are doing with their phones behind the wheel while they're driving, [and] we're able to put more resources and more funding to this issue,” May said.
The department has partnered with Cambridge Mobile Telematics to assess the behavior of Ohio drivers collected from smartphones and other sensor-enabled devices. CMT runs a voluntary program for drivers to leverage their technology and participate in safe driving initiatives through which they can earn discounts on their car insurance, if smartphone or sensor data shows they practice safe behaviors.
Data collected from more than 189 million driving trips in Ohio from January through December 2025 showed that Ohioans tapped their smartphones 21.9 times per 100 miles on average compared with the national average of 23.6 times per 100 miles, according to Ryan McMahon, vice president of strategy and corporate development at CMT.
Program data also showed that Ohioans spent 0.78% of their driving time engaging in handheld calls, lower than the national average of 0.82%.
The data suggests Ohio’s ongoing efforts to increase the awareness and enforcement of safe driving are paying off, but there is still work to be done, McMahon said.
As an example, he pointed to Ohio’s southern counties, like Highland and Adams counties, where data showed higher rates of distracted driving due to phone use. Such trends are common among areas that border a state that does not have a hands-free law, like Kentucky, McMahon explained.
Granular insights like that are helping Ohio leaders craft more targeted interventions, May said. For instance, the data signals where to concentrate efforts like public safety awareness and education outreach based on where data shows there is a greater need.
May also pointed to her office’s recent work with Ohio State University to survey law enforcement officers in the state about challenges they face when trying to educate the public on Ohio’s hands-free driving law and when they are enforcing it. Officer feedback will be valuable for the Ohio Department of Transportation to develop tools and resources for law enforcement agencies to do so.
The department is also considering how to supplement the telematics data with other traffic-related reports, such as where in the state more vehicle accidents or incidents occur. From an engineering perspective, those data insights can “help us prioritize intersections and segments of road for safety reviews and recommendations,” May said.
Ultimately, she said, leveraging telematics data “lets [the Ohio Department of Transportation] be smarter about how we're deploying our resources across the state, whether it's engineering, enforcement or education.”