Distracted Driving is a Dangerous Epidemic on America's HighwaysAccording to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), distraction plays a key role in a significant amount of road deaths and injuries each year. Distracted driving crashes are crashes in which drivers lose focus on the safe control of their vehicle due to manual, physical, visual or cognitive distraction.
NHTSA reports that a person is 23 times more likely to be involved in a car wreck if texting while driving, and has started a national public awareness campaign to inform people of the dangers of this unfortunate practice.
Texting while driving is often cited as the worst kind of distracted driving, as it utilizes a person’s hands, eyes and mind instead of holding the wheel, and looking and concentrating on the road. However, there are many other forms of distracted driving responsible for car crashes.
The Many Forms of Distracted Driving
Road crashes are predictable and can be prevented. Avoid distracted driving. Do not:
*Text and drive
*Talk on the phone
*Drive with headphones in your ears
*Focus on children in the back seat
*Play with your GPS while your car is in motion
*Look at scenery on the side of the road
*Engage in heated discussions with passengers
*Listen to overly loud music
*Look at people on the sidewalk
*Read billboards
*Play games on mobile devices
*Adjust settings for technology used in your car
*Reach for items in the car
*Slow down to look at a crash scene
*Brush your hair and put on make up
*Eat and drink
*What's going on in the brain when we multitask?
The prefrontal cortex part of the brain ignites when you need to focus on a task. It is split into the right side and the left side. Together, these two sides assist the brain in engaging in a single task. If there are two tasks at hand, the sides work independently of each other, each focusing on one task. If a motorist is doing any other task besides driving while behind the wheel, he or she has a hard time processing these signals and ultimately results in tasks being divided between two frontal cortexes.
One of the most common cases of wrongful death are due to car accidents where someone was killed due to negligent behavior. Taking another person's life to respond to a text message in a timely manner is neglecting your own safety as well as every one else's on the road.
Distracted Driving is Deadly
Over 37,000 people die in road crashes each year. An additional 2.35 million are injured or disabled. Every year, approximately 421,000 people are injured in crashes that have involved a driver who was distracted in some way. Each year, over 330,000 accidents caused by texting while driving lead to severe injuries. This means that over 78% of all distracted drivers are distracted because they have been texting while driving. 1 our of 4 car accidents in the US are caused by texting while driving.
It takes an average of three seconds after a driver's mind is taken off the road for any road accident to occur. This is the bare minimum amount of time it takes. To put that in perspective, three seconds is the time it takes to turn your ignition when starting your car.
Reading a text message while driving successfully distracts a driver for a minimum of five seconds each time. This means that the chances of an accident occurring while reading a text is extremely high. The average speed in the US is about 55 MPH. Taking five seconds to read a text in this time means that the driver travels the length of a football field without looking at the road, or being distracted. There are so many vehicles on the road now that this means there is a huge chance of something terrible happening in this distance.
Please do not text and drive. If you have been injured in an accident that you believe may have been caused by driver distraction, call Leiker Law, LLC today to prove your case and recover the compensation you and your family deserve.