A great deal of attention is paid to the possibility of encountering a distracted driver on the road in Tampa and throughout Florida. Any form of distraction while driving is dangerous. With new technology adding to the various ways to communicate while on the road, there are many different opportunities to pay attention to something other than what a driver should: driving. Texting and driving is one of the most risky behaviors that a driver can partake in and one that the National Safety Council (NSC) is researching extensively.
The latest information accrued by the NSC indicates that crashes due to cellphone use rose for the third straight year and are now involved in 27 percent of car accidents. What is of greater concern is that the number also includes people who were not only texting and speaking on the phone, but were using hands-free devices. The researchers estimate that the number of accidents involving texting and driving increased between 5 and 6 percent. Accidents with drivers who were talking stayed the same at 21 percent.
The agency uses information that accounts for data from the federal government regarding fatal accidents, investigations in the accidents and research into the risks of people using cellphones while operating a vehicle. A driver who is texting is eight times as likely to be in a car accident. Those who are talking on a cellphone either with or without a hands-free device are four times as likely to have an accident.
It is continuously hammered home how being a distracted driver by using a cellphone is a dangerous act. People seem to understand the reality, but that has had little influence on stopping the behavior. States are also cracking down with citations for drivers caught in the act. None of this is preventing the accidents and the rising prevalence of them. Those who have been in a car accident and suffered injuries or lost a loved one due to a distracted driver need to know how to pursue a legal case for compensation with help from a legal professional.
Source: nsc.org, “Cell phones are involved in an estimated 27 percent of all car crashes, says National Safety Council,” accessed Sept. 6, 2015
