Road safety, smartphone use among the most dangerous driving behaviors

Smartphone behind the wheel constant danger. For 63% of Italians, using a smartphone is among the most dangerous behaviors adopted while driving. This is one of the most significant data that emerges from the Dekra 2026 Report on road safety: "The road as a workplace", presented to the Chamber and created in collaboration with the Piepoli Institute and Ital Communications. Among the other most dangerous driving behaviors, Italians also indicate the use of alcohol or drugs (59%), failure to respect the right of way, traffic lights and road signs (44%), feeling tired or drowsy (42%).

According to the research, 59% of Italians consider the roads they usually travel to be "very or fairly safe", while the priorities they indicate for making "mobility safer" are maintenance (57%), more checks (48%) and better road safety education (46%). Furthermore, 67% of respondents express "a lot or some confidence" in the ability of technologies to contribute to the prevention of accidents.

Road safety means first of all "prevention, quality of infrastructure, respect for rules and shared responsibility", underlines the report, which recalls Aci-Istat data: in 2025, in Italy, there were 177,207 road accidents with injuries to people, which caused 2,868 deaths, with a reduction of 162 deaths compared to 2024, equal to 5.3%.

"The street as a workplace requires a cultural change, in which technological innovation and shared responsibility are in close synergy", says the president of Dekra Italia, Toni Purcaro. "A complex reality emerges from the report, where prevention takes on a leading role to protect every user, from professional drivers to pedestrians", he underlines. “New generation assistance systems and automation offer extraordinary opportunities to reduce road accidents. However, the effectiveness of these tools depends entirely on renewed human awareness,” concludes Purcaro.