WSP uses cellphone data to predict and prevent dangerous drivers

The Washington State Patrol (WSP) has implemented a new tool that utilizes drivers’ phone data to limit the rate and frequency of speeding on the state’s roadways and thoroughfares.

Cellphone data collected in 2023 from more than 1 million cellphone users in Washington helped the state identify habits of dangerous drivers, according to KING 5.

Dangerous WA drivers’ cellphone data

Shelley Baldwin, Director of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC), said that the WTSC used state funding to purchase telematic data, gathered by Michelin Mobility Intelligence, according to KING 5.

“This is so exciting to be using data that we haven’t had access to before,” Baldwin told KING 5. “This is predictive as opposed to reflective.”

The data revealed when and where drivers had sped, used their brakes, talked on the phone, and texted while on Washington roadways.

WSP will utilize the newly acquired data to search for speeders in four Washington locations over the next six weeks:

• I-5 from Joint Base Lewis-McChord to Fife
• Fife to Auburn on I-5
• North and South of Everett on I-5
• 14-mile stretch of Interstate 90, East and West of downtown Spokane