On Thursday, driver risk management company, DriveCam Inc. launched its DriveCam Insights Series. Designed to provide insight for executives and managers throughout a variety of transportation industries, the DriveCam Insights Series is derived from DriveCam's extensive database of more than 16 million driving events from two billion driving miles.

First to go under the microscope is the transit industry. Initial research found a few surprises, specifically concerning distracted driving. With so much focus in the news on collisions in the transit industry caused by distracted driving, DriveCam said it was surprised to find that it actually ranks #5 on the list of behaviors. The Top 5 Driving Behaviors among all transit vehicles in order are:

1. Not looking far enough ahead

2. Following too close

3. Traffic violations

4. Failure to keep an out

5. Distractions

DriveCam also found that the collision rate of "bus/coach" was 9.3 percent, which compares favorably to the most recent Transit Safety and Security Statistics and Analysis from the Federal Transit Administration; it released data that resulted in a collision rate of 9.6 percent. Within collisions, passenger vehicles (taxis) had the highest collision rate of 16.3 percent.

For this study, DriveCam reviewed more than 100,000 risky driving events in a sampling of 10,000 transit vehicles. Transit-industry clients on DriveCam's Managed Services Program see a dramatic decrease in the frequency and severity of collisions year-over-year, resulting in an overall claims cost reduction of 30 percent to 80 percent, according to the company.

The data analyzed for this study focused on a disproportionate number of newer clients resulting in an average collision rate similar to third-party industry research. DriveCam's Insights Series will be released on an on-going basis. Coming up next is Transit Behaviors and Collisions vs. Other Industries.