With the advent of cellular phones came yet another cause of traffic accidents. Twenty years ago in the United States a cellular phone was considered a luxury item reserved for the upper classes or those professionals that truly needed one. Times have certainly changed! Now, over 80% of the population in the United States owns a cell phone. Most of us feel lost if we realize we forgot to grab our cell phone when we left the house. Additionally, most of us are now accustomed to using our cell phones at all times and in all places – including inside the car while driving. While talking on the phone while driving creates a greater risk of having an accident, texting while driving sends that chance skyrocketing.
The statistics for accidents involving texting drivers are staggering. While you may think that the driving while texting problem is reserved for teenage drivers – it’s not. One-fifth of adult drivers in the United States admit to sending text messages while driving. That figure may be higher as many people do not want to admit that they engage in obvious risky behavior. So how risky is texting while driving? Studies show that people that are texting while driving are 23% more likely to be in an accident. To put that in perspective, texting while driving is six times more likely to result in an accident than driving while intoxicated. The reason why texting is so incredibly dangerous is the time that it takes your eyes off the road. One study showed that texting while driving increases the time your eyes are not on the road by 400%! Think of that statistics this way – for every 6 seconds of drive time, a driver sending or receiving a text message spends 4.6 of those seconds with their eyes off the road. This makes texting the most distracting of all cell phone related tasks.
As of February, 2010, nineteen states, the District of Columbia and Guam have banned text messaging for all drivers. Nine other states ban text messaging for novice drivers. The State of California is one of the states that have banned not just text messaging, but hand held devices entirely. Despite this ban, accidents continue to happen as the result of driver’s texting while driving. If you absolutely must communicate with someone while you are driving, use a hands-free device to do it. While texting is a wonderful, easy way to communicate, save it for when you are not supposed to be watching the road! If you have been the victim of an accident involving cellular phone use, then you may be entitled to recover compensation for your injuries. Only an experienced California accident attorney can evaluate your particular case and advise you as to what options you may have to recover for the damages you have suffered.
If you have been the victim of a car accident and would like an experienced attorney to evaluate your case, contact the law offices of Ledger & Associates at 1-800-300-0001 or visit us at www.ledgerlaw.com.
