Colorado Department of Transportation finds unsafe driving behaviors dropped for 2nd year in a row

The Colorado Department of Transportation has released new data on unsafe driving behaviors in 2025. The annual report focused on seat belt usage, impaired driving, driving distracted, speeding, motorcycle driving and young drivers.

The annual report shows that fewer drivers are engaging in multiple unsafe driving behaviors. The number of unsafe driving behaviors per driver dropped for the second year in a row, falling to 1.19 in 2025, down from 1.27 in 2024 and 1.35 in 2023 but over one-third of drivers report speeding on highways.

Through a random-sample survey, CDOT evaluated 1,695 Colorado residents' attitudes and behaviors concerning seat belt use, speeding, distracted driving, impaired driving, motorcycle safety, law awareness and young driver attitudes. Responses were collected from 61 of Colorado's 64 counties.

Highlights of the study include:

Seat belts:

• Ninety percent of Colorado drivers said they wear their seat belt all the time when driving.
• The following drivers were less likely to say they wear their seat belt when driving:
• Drivers of vehicles older than 2001 (72%)
• Drivers aged 18 to 45 (85%)
• Drivers without a college degree (85%)
• Male drivers (87%)

Speeding:

• Thirty-six percent of Colorado drivers said they drive over the speed limit most or all the time on highways/interstates.

Distracted driving:

• The percentage of Colorado drivers who picked up a phone to make calls decreased from 42% in 2024 to 34% in 2025, and the share that picked up a phone to send a message decreased from 30% to 23%.
• Ninety-one percent of drivers were aware of Colorado's 'hands-free' law prohibiting the use of a mobile device while driving. Drivers who used their phones while driving were less likely to know about the law.

Impaired driving:

• Twenty-one percent of all drivers said they drove within two hours of consuming alcohol, cannabis, or impairing prescription drugs in the last 30 days.
• While the share of 2025 drivers (21%) who drove after consuming substances was similar to that in 2024 (23%), there was a significant decrease from 2023 (28%).
• Very few Colorado drivers agreed that they could drive safely under the influence of alcohol (7%), cannabis (9%), or prescription medications (9%).
• Thirty-three percent of cannabis-using drivers said they drove within two hours of using cannabis in the last 30 days.
• Thirty-six percent of cannabis-using drivers thought they could drive safely under the influence of cannabis.

Motorcycles:

• About 78% of motorcycle riders said they wear a helmet most or all the time when riding.
• Helmet use among motorcycle riders was similar in 2024 and 2025. However, a larger share of riders said they never wear a helmet in 2025 (13%) than in 2023 (4%).
• Most motorcycle riders (71%) said they did not engage in lane filtering.

Law awareness:

• In addition to the high awareness rate (91%) of the "hands-free" law, 87% of drivers were aware of the law requiring three feet of space to pass bicyclists, 78% were aware of the motorcycle lane filtering law, and 77% were aware of the requirement to provide breath/blood samples upon DUI arrest.

Young drivers:

• Young drivers were much more likely to say they picked up their phone to make or receive calls, read text messages, and send text messages while driving.
• Young drivers were more than twice as likely to believe that they could drive safely under the influence of cannabis than older drivers.

The study also found that male drivers and individuals between the ages of 25 and 44 were the most likely to engage in risky driving behaviors, especially when it comes to speeding.

"Speeding is a really common element in a lot of these fatalities," said Sam Cole, Traffic Safety Manager for CDOT. "It reduces your ability to react. It also reduces the ability of your car to slow down and the time before a crash. Anyone who has ever been in a crash knows it happens in an instant."

CDOT says they hope to see better statistics in 2026, but overall, the state is heading in the right direction.