Travelers Institute^®: Distracted Driving – Every Second Matters^®

The Travelers Institute, the public policy division of Travelers, launched the Every Second Matters education campaign in 2017 to help combat distracted driving. The campaign recognizes that every driver, passenger, cyclist and pedestrian has a role to play in combating distraction and enhancing roadway safety. Travelers Institute educational programs on this topic have been held at universities and in communities across the United States and Canada and at various transportation safety and insurance industry conferences. The Travelers Institute has also raised awareness about the dangers of distracted driving through its publicly available Wednesdays with Woodward^® webinars.

The Every Second Matters campaign stands on three key principles:

• Creating a social stigma around distracted driving.
• Increasing understanding about situational awareness by all roadway users, including elevating the conversation about pedestrian and cyclist safety.
• Examining scalable technology and InsurTech solutions.

By engaging thousands of people in this campaign across more than 100 events, we hope it will compel people to pay attention behind the wheel and put down their phones while driving. If our campaign saves even one life, it will have been worth the effort.

Key activities

• Promoting roadway safety during holiday travel. In 2025, for the fourth year in a row, the Travelers Institute promoted safe driving awareness during the holiday travel season. From Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, when millions of Americans hit the road to see loved ones, the Travelers Institute ran a media campaign providing tips to help drivers stay safe on the roads. Through this initiative, the Travelers Institute participated in 30 television and radio interviews, which were syndicated across the United States, resulting in more than 1,000 airings. Media outlets also posted the coverage to their websites, and a post-campaign multimedia release was picked up by top-tier publications. In total, the campaign reached an audience of more than 100 million people.

• Educational symposium series. The Travelers Institute has engaged policymakers, researchers, students, independent insurance agents and others through 96 in-person and virtual events as part of an educational symposium series that first launched in 2017. Speakers have included representatives from the RAND Institute for Civil Justice, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Safety Council and Travelers. Notably, the Travelers Institute partnered with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) to conduct a livestreamed vehicle crash test at IIHS headquarters. IIHS’ Raul Arbelaez also walked the audience through the history of the organization, the state of roadway safety and how the organization evaluates vehicle crashworthiness. View these and other select Travelers Institute events here.

• Incentivizing safe behavior through telematics. Through consistent feedback and educational tips, Travelers customers can better understand their driving habits by participating in our IntelliDrive^® smartphone-based telematics programs. They also have the opportunity to influence their auto insurance premium based on their driving behaviors. IntelliDrive, a 90-day program introduced in 2017, was available in 29 states and Canada in 2025. In 2024, Travelers built on IntelliDrive’s success and launched IntelliDrive 365, which is available in 14 states as of December 2025. Throughout the life of the policy, IntelliDrive 365 will evaluate certain driving behaviors, provide positive reinforcement for safer driving behaviors and offer tips on how to improve based on personalized driving data. In both programs, customers with safer driving behaviors can see savings, while riskier driving habits may result in a higher premium.

• Online resources. Travelers offers a wide range of online resources and content on distracted driving for advocates, business leaders and the general public. In 2023, the Travelers Institute published an interactive guide based on its comprehensive Every Second Matters: Reducing Distracted Driving, One Voice at a Time report. Both digital publications encourage conversations about the importance of minimizing distracted driving. They provide a data-driven snapshot of roadway distraction and outline concrete steps to help drivers reduce distractions.

• Unfinished Stories. Travelers worked with the families of victims of distracted driving to honor their loved ones through our Unfinished Stories campaign. The campaign, which launched in 2019, featured a series of stories imagining what could have been if their lives had not been cut short. For example, Travelers shared the story of a young boy named Zaadii, who was killed by a distracted driver. His passion for comics and superheroes was the inspiration for an innovative way to reach out to distracted drivers across the country. In partnership with his family, an exclusive comic book was created by two well-known comic book professionals – writer Gail Simone and artist Jim Calafiore. Other stories in the series include:

  • The Treehouse: Howard’s Unfinished Story

  • The Stage: Shreya’s Unfinished Story

  • The Route: Phil’s Unfinished Story

• Public television documentary. Travelers sponsored an Emmy-nominated documentary for public television titled “3 Seconds Behind the Wheel,” which follows the lives of eight drivers to monitor distracted driving behaviors. The film, released in 2018, is available on Amazon Prime. In addition, the film has been broadcast in 83 U.S. markets and was accepted by PBS International and distributed in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. It continues to be available to a wide range of educational organizations, including schools, libraries, drivers’ education programs and more. The Travelers Institute has held numerous screenings of the documentary for attendees at colleges, transportation safety conferences and agent events.

Stakeholder engagement

• Employers. The Every Second Matters initiative challenges employers and employees to elevate distracted driving prevention within their organizations, facilitating discussions on creating a culture of safety in the workplace. Travelers Risk Control also advises Travelers customers on strategies to prevent distracted driving. Learn more.

• Independent insurance agents and brokers. The independent agents and brokers in our company’s network see the consequences of distracted driving with customers every day. Travelers offers resources to help them facilitate conversations with personal and business insurance customers to create safer roadways for all. In addition, the Travelers Institute partners with agent and broker associations that are also taking a leadership role by co-hosting university education programs.

• Students. The Travelers Institute is engaging with future risk management and insurance leaders on campuses regarding distracted driving. Programming at universities of all sizes also helps increase visibility for Travelers and attract talent; the Travelers Talent Acquisition team leverages these programs to connect with students and showcase the opportunity to address important issues through a career at Travelers. Since the start of the initiative in 2017, we have held programs at Harvard University, St. John’s University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Pennsylvania, among others. In addition, since 2009, Travelers has sponsored the annual Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles’ Teen Safe Driving Video Contest. In this contest, high school students from across Connecticut script, direct and edit short videos, educating their peers on teen driving laws and the dangers of distracted driving.

• Travelers employees. Consistent with our Every Second Matters platform, Travelers has an internal Driver Safety policy to help maintain the safety of Travelers employees who drive for Travelers, as well as a policy regarding Driving and the Use of Mobile Technology. These policies are supported by Travelers senior leaders, who regularly remind employees that their safety while driving is of paramount importance.

Related resources

• Travelers Institute^® webinar: Crash and Learn LIVE with IIHS
• Travelers Institute^® webinar: Painting a Clearer Picture: How Technology Innovations Are Improving Distracted Driving Data and Advancing Safety
• Travelers Institute^® webinar: ADAS in the Wild