April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The San Diego car accident lawyers at Gomez Trial Attorneys are going to continue to bring about awareness to this serious public safety issue. The current volume of car crashes caused by distracted driving is unfortunate. Fortunately, the problem is such that people are studying this issue like never before. The more we learn about distracted driving, the more we will understand how to avoid car crashes. The most recent study on distracted driving may also be one of the most troubling. It measured the percentage of drivers involved in car crashes who had been distracted by a cellphone at some point in their trip. The results were not encouraging. They should prompt anyone who sees them to take stock of their own driving habits.
Researchers at Cambridge Mobile Telematics, or CMT, completed the study. CMT is a company that is geared towards making our roads safer by way of different technologies including apps that help to measure our driving performance. The researchers tracked the data recorded by one of these apps that more than 100,000 drivers used. The data involved driving trips over a period of 18 months. The study uncovered the following information:
The analysis makes it clear that:
The study went on to discuss the effectiveness of cellphone laws that exist around the United States. Distracted driving and car crashes that result have been a major issue for several years now. State legislatures have responded with laws that restrict the use of cellphones and handheld devices to varying degrees. The researchers broke jurisdictions down into three categories based on the laws in place in those states. Those categories include:
The researchers then analyzed the amount of time that drivers in each of these jurisdictions spent distracted per 100 miles of driving. They found the following:
The study’s authors stated that the difference between the least restrictive jurisdictions and the most restrictive is ‘marginal.’ Numerically, drivers in states with the most restrictive laws were 20 percent less distracted in terms of time than those with the fewest handheld restrictions. Those interested in reading the entire analysis can find it here.
As mentioned above, governments on all levels recognize the problem that is car crashes caused by distracted driving. One of the reasons that they were motivated to pass laws restricting the use of cellphones and other handheld devices while driving was because of the statistics that reveal the massive scope of the problem. For instance, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or the NHTSA:
To put this into perspective, more people were injured in distracted driving crashes in the United States in 2015 than there are people in New Orleans, Louisiana. At any given moment during the day, the number of motorists using an electronic device while driving exceeds the population of Boston, Massachusetts. It seems beyond debate that distracted driving causes car crashes and that this is a problem that is getting worse instead of better.
The media is beginning to take notice of this problem as well. Last fall, Fortune Magazine labeled distracted driving in the United States an “epidemic.” Our firm has focused on this problem repeatedly, including:
We encourage visitors to review the information on the links provided. In furtherance of Distracted Driving Awareness Month, we would all do well to know more about the types of distracted driving, including using cellphones, that exist as well as the harm distracted driving causes.
While we will continue to work to bring awareness to this issue, the unfortunate reality is that people are going to continue to drive while distracted and cause car crashes as a result. If you or someone you love has been injured by a distracted driver, you need to do your part by holding those responsible for this harm accountable. Contact the San Diego personal injury lawyers at Gomez Trial Attorneys today for a free case evaluation.
John Gomez founded the firm alone in 2005. Today, John acts as President and Lead Trial Attorney. He has been voted by his peers as a top ten San Diego litigator in three separate fields: Personal Injury, Insurance and Corporate Litigation. Since 2000, he has recovered over $800 million in settlements and verdicts for his clients with more than 160 separate recoveries of one million dollars or more. A prolific trial lawyer, John has tried to jury verdict more than 60 separate cases.
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