Ahead of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, when many Britons head off for day trips and short breaks, new analysis from Hastings Direct pointed to a marked rise in mobile phone use and speeding - a combination likely to be closely watched by motor insurers and telematics providers.
Insights from Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), which powers Hastings Direct's YouDrive proposition, showed that on Good Friday last year, drivers spent 10% longer using their phones behind the wheel than on an average day. The level of distraction climbed further during the rush home on Easter Sunday, with a 12% increase in the length of mobile phone interactions compared with typical driver behaviour across the year.
The analysis highlighted clear spikes in risk at traditional getaway times. Between 7am and 9am on Good Friday, and again on Easter Monday, phone use rose most sharply. Those same periods also saw the largest increases in speeding, with a 128% rise in the length of time spent speeding on Good Friday and a 142% rise on Easter Sunday.
Telematics data also suggested that drivers using the roads in the early hours are especially prone to extended screen time. From midnight to 4am on Easter Sunday, motorists used their phones for an average of 68 seconds per hour while driving.
Longer glances at a device at higher speeds are more likely to be associated with serious injury and fatal collisions than lower‑speed urban incidents, particularly when combined with holiday traffic and unfamiliar routes.
Viewed over a longer period, the proportion of trips involving any screen interaction has edged down from 35.7% to 34.6% over the last three years. However, Hastings’ data shows that when drivers do pick up their phones, they are doing so for longer. Average screen interaction time has risen from 44 seconds per hour in 2023 to 48 seconds in 2025 – an 8% increase – while the time spent making a hand‑held call has jumped by a third, from 10 seconds to 16 seconds per hour.
That pattern suggests distraction is becoming more concentrated among a subset of drivers rather than evenly spread across the motoring population. That granularity is central to pricing, risk selection and designing interventions such as coaching, in‑app nudges and rewards for distraction‑free driving.
In 2024, more than 29,460 people were killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads, with distraction cited as the main contributing factor in around a third of fatal collisions. Young drivers remain at the highest risk across all age groups, which is one reason why telematics-based policies are often targeted at this demographic.
This means that higher repair costs, more complex vehicle technology and longer key‑to‑key times have all pushed up average claim outlays. In that context, high‑resolution telematics data on distraction, speeding and time of day is increasingly seen as a key tool to help control loss ratios, particularly in younger and higher‑risk cohorts.
Motorists are also being reminded that hand‑held phone use at the wheel is illegal. Since 2022, it has been an offence in Great Britain to use a hand‑held device for almost any purpose while driving, closing previous loopholes around activities such as scrolling, gaming or taking photos. The standard penalty is a £200 fine and six penalty points, which can be enough to see newer drivers lose their licence.
Hastings Direct CEO Toby van der Meer said the Easter Bank Holiday is often a special time when families and friends travel to spend time together, but that it also means roads can become significantly busier, especially in the mornings. He stressed the importance of planning routes in advance, avoiding multitasking at the wheel and staying fully focused while driving.
Meanwhile, William Powers, co‑founder and CEO of CMT, characterised distracted driving as “one of the defining challenges of modern mobility” and noted that “it only takes a moment to change everything.” He said telematics and AI now give insurers and mobility providers unprecedented visibility into patterns of distracted driving, allowing them to predict and reduce risk before a crash happens.
The Hastings Direct study covered 1.3 million drivers, more than 40 million miles and 5.3 million journeys over the 2025 Easter Bank Holiday, benchmarked against driving interactions in the two weeks before and after the long weekend.
