Leesburg Florida car accident lawyer discusses why distracted driving leads to more car accidents.
I’m guilty of distracted driving. I’m traveling from one court to another and I have to grab a bite to eat, while I’m eating and driving to court, my office calls me on my cell, and I’m answering the phone. Has it happened to you? What would happen if traffic had to stop short because a child walked into the road or another car had broken down up ahead? Would you be able to avoid the crash? Distraction.gov provides a number of facts and statistics about distracted driving.
What is distracted driving?
Distracted driving is not just talking on your cell phone, checking email or texting. Distracted driving is any activity that can divert our attention from the task at hand – DRIVING, which can include:
- Eating
- Talking to passengers
- Grooming
- Putting on make-up
- Reading
- Playing with the radio, mp3 player or i-pod
Research shows that texting is by far the most dangerous because it requires us to look away from the road, read the message, and then look for eyes to type a message back. So this is both cognitive distraction and visual distraction.
Just a few short stats to put it in perspective
- In 2010, 18% all of car accidents with injuries were related to distracted driving
- Drivers who use handheld devices are four times more likely to get into serious enough accidents to injure themselves
- Text messaging versus non-distracted driving raises the risk of an accident by 23 times
If you have been injured in a car accident because the other driver was distracted, you can call this Leesburg, Florida car accident lawyer directly on my cell at 352-267-9168 and I will answer your questions.