What is Event Severity?

Severity levels play a vital role in Motive’s safety platform, helping fleet managers prioritize event response and coaching. Knowing how these levels are determined ensures quick, effective action on risky driving behaviors and incidents. Once enabled through company settings, Event Severity automatically assigns a severity level to safety events. Read below to learn how severity is determined for safety events.

Overview

Motive classifies safety events into four severity levels—Critical, High, Medium, and Low—based on the risk they pose and the urgency required for review.  

• Prioritize Response: Focus attention where risk is highest.  
• Improve Safety Outcomes: Tailor coaching to severity for better results.  
• Transparency & Control: Understand and adjust event severity as needed.  
• Streamlined Reviews: Quickly triage events for efficient fleet management.

Understanding the four severity levels

Motive assigns severity levels to safety events to help you assess risk and prioritize review:

Critical Severity 

• Represents the most urgent and dangerous events, such as verified collisions.  
• Demands immediate review and response to ensure safety.

High Severity

• Indicates events with significant risk, like near-miss collisions or egregious speeding.  
• Requires prompt intervention to prevent future incidents.

Medium Severity

• Covers moderate-risk events that should be reviewed in a timely manner.
• Useful for identifying patterns and coaching opportunities.

Low Severity

• Denotes lower-risk events, still valuable for proactive coaching and long-term trend analysis.  
• Supports continuous improvement even for less urgent behaviors.

How severity is assigned to specific unsafe behaviors

Motive uses a combination of fixed rules, AI analysis, and event-specific thresholds to assign severity levels.

Events with Fixed (Predefined) Severity Levels

Some events always receive the same severity due to their seriousness:

• Collision: Always Critical severity.
• Near Collision: Always High severity.
• Driver Capture (Proactive Recording): Always High severity.
• Forward Collision Warning (FCW): Always High severity.
• Unsafe Parking: Always High severity.

Events with Conditional Severity (Based on Speed and Other Factors)

Some event severities are determined by specific conditions, mainly vehicle speed:

Safety event	Severity type	Severity definition
Collision	Critical	Collisions are always critical severity events.
Near Collision	High	Near collisions are always high severity events.
Smoking	High	Smoking severity will always be marked as high.
Driver capture	High	Driver captures are always high severity events because the driver is proactively sharing footage.
Forward Collision Warning	High	Forward Collision Warnings are always high severity events.
Unsafe Parking	High	Unsafe parking events are always high severity.
Hard Braking	Low	Vehicle deceleration intensity between 0.34g and 0.36g
	Medium	Vehicle deceleration intensity between 0.36g and 0.40g
	High	Vehicle deceleration intensity above 0.40g
Hard Acceleration	Low	Our AI algorithm determines the event's severity using unsafe driver behavior and telematics data.
	Medium	Our AI algorithm determines the event's severity using unsafe driver behavior and telematics data.
	High	Our AI algorithm determines the event's severity using unsafe driver behavior and telematics data.
Hard Cornering	Low	Our AI algorithm determined this event's severity using unsafe driver behavior and telematics data.
	Medium	Our AI algorithm determined this event's severity using unsafe driver behavior and telematics data.
	High	Our AI algorithm determined this event's severity using unsafe driver behavior and telematics data.
Speeding Over Posted	Low	Vehicle speed is less than 6 mph over the posted limit.
	Medium	Vehicle speed is between 6-10 mph over the posted limit.
	High	Vehicle speed is between 11-14 mph over the posted speed limit.
	Critical	Vehicle speed is greater than or equal to 15mph over the posted speed limit.
Close Following	Low	Driver does not maintain a safe following distance while driving less than 10 mph.
	Medium	Driver does not maintain a safe following distance while driving between 10-45 mph.
	High	Driver does not maintain a safe following distance while driving over 45 mph.
Stop Sign Violation	Low	Driver runs a stop sign going less than 8 mph.
	Medium	Driver runs a stop sign going between 8-10 mph.
	High	Driver runs a stop sign going over 10 mph.
Cell Phone Usage	Low	Driver uses a cell phone while driving less than 5 mph.
	Medium	Driver uses a cell phone while driving between 5-20 mph.
	High	Driver uses a cell phone while driving over 20 mph.
Distraction	Low	Driver appears distracted while driving less than 30 mph.
	Medium	Driver appears distracted while driving between 30-60 mph.
	High	Driver appears distracted while driving over 60 mph.
Seatbelt Violation	Low	Driver does not wear a seatbelt while driving between 25-35 mph.
	Medium	Driver does not wear a seatbelt while driving between 35-45 mph.
	High	Driver does not wear a seatbelt while driving over 45 mph.
Unsafe Lane Change	Low	Driver does not maintain a safe following distance while changing lanes & driving between 0-30 mph.
	Medium	Driver does not maintain a safe following distance while changing lanes & driving between 30-45 mph.
	High	Driver does not maintain a safe following distance while changing lanes & driving over 45 mph.
Obstructed Camera	Low	Vehicle travels with an obstructed camera between 0-15 mph which may have prevented the detection of additional unsafe behaviors.
	Medium	Vehicle travels with an obstructed camera between 15-45 mph which may have prevented the detection of additional unsafe behaviors.
	High	Vehicle travels with an obstructed camera over 45 mph which may have prevented the detection of additional unsafe behaviors.
Drowsiness	Low	Driver appears drowsy or fatigued while driving between 10-25 mph.
	Medium	Driver appears drowsy or fatigued while driving between 25-45 mph.
	High	Driver appears drowsy or fatigued while driving above 45 mph.
Forward Parking	Low	Max reverse speed is less than 2 mph
	Medium	Max reverse speed 2–5 mph
	High	Max reverse speed is more than 5 mph
Lane swerving	Low	Speed range is 35-45 mph
	Medium	Speed range is 45-55 mph
	High	Speed range is 55+ mph
Eating	Low	Less than 30 mph
	Medium	30 to 60 mph
	High	Greater than 60 mph

Note: Lane cutoff and Ran red light events do not have any severity assigned to them because they are tagged by the Safety review team. They inherit the severity of the underlying safety event generated by Motive devices. When one event has multiple Unsafe behaviors tagged to it, the severity for that event is calculated based on the maximum of the severities of the multiple unsafe behaviors tagged to the event. When you change the severity from the dashboard, then you will see the same severity across the dashboard for that event. You will also notice such changes in the severity tool tips in the Safety events listing and events details page, where the tool tip reads “The severity of this event was manually changed by a fleet manager from your company.” When severity is pending, it means that Motive is still analyzing the severity and has not allocated any severity to the event yet. In such cases, you will notice that the tooltip reads “A severity level will be assigned once Motive analyzes this event.”

FAQs

• Guide_Event Severity_JP.pdf
  (3 MB)

Share this with others