Three out of five professional drivers use their mobile phone every day while driving, mostly to make calls, but a quarter of them use it to surf social media, according to the results of an online survey by the professional drivers' association Convoy.

“When asked about mobile phone use while driving, 61% of respondents said they use it every day. Of the remaining 39%, 19.5% use their mobile phone several times a week and another 19.5% several times a month,” said Sinisa Strelec, a Convoy traffic engineer, at the “Professional Drivers and Road Safety” conference, which was held as part of the “Day Without a Phone While Driving” campaign.

The survey was conducted on a sample of 533 professional drivers. The most common reason for using a mobile phone is to make a call, with just over 70% of drivers using hands-free devices.

24.4% of drivers check social media while driving

“While the use of hands-free devices is commendable, we should encourage the development of technology that blocks access to non-essential functions while driving, such as messaging apps,” said Strelec.

The survey results show that 24.4% of drivers check social media while driving, 34.1% send and read messages and 58.8% use their phone for navigation.

“In addition to intensive educational campaigns highlighting the dangers of mobile phone use while driving, stricter internal guidelines should be introduced in transport companies to clearly define mobile phone use,” Strelec said.

Lorry drivers involved in 14% of serious road accidents

Miron Huljak, advisor to the Police Directorate, said that lorry drivers are involved in 14% of serious traffic accidents on Croatian roads.

Of the total number of accidents in 2023 and in the first eight months of this year, trucks and buses were involved in 220. To reduce this number, a number of activities have been defined. One of these is the search for a model to promote the modernisation of vehicle fleets.

“It is also important to introduce road safety education into the school system, from kindergarten to secondary school age. In this context, a meeting was held with the head teachers of primary schools,” said Huljak.

Josip Mataija, Head of the Road Safety Department of the Police Directorate, said that lorry drivers are not the direct culprits in most accidents involving these vehicles.