The leading cause of car accidents in the United States is distracted driving. Distracted driving accidents and deaths outnumber accidents involving a crime, such as drunk driving, speeding or driving recklessly. Nearly a fourth of all accidents in the country entail some sort of distracted driving. About 6,000 people die in distracted driving accidents each year, and such accidents injure more than half a million.
A Texas jury found a Texas A&M student liable in the death of a Baylor student and ordered him to pay $22 million in damages to the Baylor student’s family and another girl injured in the accident. The 21-year-old Baylor student was driving to the university from her Houston home when another driver heading in the opposite direction crossed the center lane and struck her head on.
The other driver, a Texas A&M student, initially denied having a cell phone on him at the time of the crash, but investigators looked over his phone records and found that he had sent and received 15 text messages and made seven phone calls in the 45 minutes before the fatal accident. The victim’s friend was following behind her, and the accident forced the friend to veer off the road, causing her car to roll over several times.
The Texas A&M student declared bankruptcy prior to trial, so he will not have to pay much, if any, of the $22 million award. Nevertheless, the jury award pleased the plaintiffs and their lawyers who had hoped to send a message about the dangers of texting and driving. A car accident lawyer can help you hold negligent drivers responsible if distracted driving has injured you or a loved one.
The Dangers of Distracted Driving
Distracted driving encompasses a number of activities, including:
- Cell phone use,
- eating and drinking,
- conversing with others in the car
- putting on makeup
- reading
- using navigation systems
- changing settings on the stereo or mp3 player
- reaching for item or looking at scenery
These activities pose dangers because they impair the activities that are important to driving. The US Department of Transportation lists three types of distractions:
- Visual – distracted driving forces you to take your eyes off the road, and you cannot react to conditions that you do not see until the last second
- Manual – distracted driving can lead to taking one hand or both off the wheel, which affects how well you can respond to a sudden change
- Cognitive – distracted driving causes you to process events and happenings more slowly because you are not devoting your full attention to driving conditions
As the unfortunate Texas accident above demonstrated, texting while driving is particularly dangerous because it involves all three forms of distraction. Contact a car accident attorney at Cappolino, Dodd, and Krebs, LLP if a distracted driving has hurt you or a loved one.