Telematics showed drivers used phones within 30 seconds before impact in 8% of two-vehicle crashes and 7% of single-vehicle crashes.
Police reports noted cellphone use in under 1% of crashes, at least seven times fewer than telematics indicated.
IIHS matched nearly 17,000 crashes from 2021–2024; police and telematics agreed on phone-use type in exactly three cases.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says police officers are missing the single biggest clue at most crash scenes: the phone in the driver's hand. A new study out August 27, 2026 puts a number on that blind spot.
IIHS researchers matched anonymized telematics data from Cambridge Mobile Telematics against nearly 17,000 police-reported crashes in four states between 2021 and 2024. What they found undercuts how the country tracks distracted driving.
