Distractions will make a motorist stop concentrating on driving. This will in turn result with the driver abandoning control of a vehicle or miss critical cues, objects or events. All these are potential causes of a crash. The NHTSA Tennessee Report shows that one out of every ten fatal vehicle crashes are a result of distracted driving.
Distracted driving is quite risky and causes fatal crashes. An estimate done by NHTSA showed that distracted driving accounted for 18% of all crashes causing injury and 10% of all fatal car crashes. The exact toll was not determined because investigators usually have a hard time measuring the extent to which distraction contributes to a crash. Drivers often do not admit fault and police may not be always in a position to discern how distraction was involved. Additionally, wireless devices are normally accessed in cases of serious injury or death. Reporting methods are improving, but present estimates normally underestimate the frequency by which distraction causes crashes.
The AAA Foundation of Traffic Safety has determined, through research, that a driver doubles the risk of a crash when they rake their eyes off the road for more than 2 seconds.
The foundation has an annual traffic safety culture index. It is used to measure national attitudes towards road safety. The index consistently finds that drivers are always engaging in distracting behaviors when they are behind the wheel even when they know the dangers involved. According to the index, 58% of drivers rated cell phone use and 83% rated sending/receiving texts while driving as major threats to their safety on the road. All the same, many of these drivers have admitted to performing the same distracting behaviors. Furthermore, 88% of the respondents stated that distracted drivers were, in one way or another, a bigger problem today than they were several years ago.
Cell phone use, as one of the major causes of distracted driving, has attracted much of the needed focus on distracted driving. A report on a study carried by the AAA Foundation showed that cell phone use approximately quadruples the risk of a car crash. Safety for every road user is a major concern since one out of every twenty drivers use a handheld mobile phone at any given time.
The majority of drivers are of the belief that handheld phones are not as safe as hands free phones. Many research studies have showed that this is not true as they have concluded that there are no significant benefits to use hands-free over hand-held mobile phones. Some cities and states, like Tennessee, have laws that forbid drivers from using any handheld phone. The same law allows the drivers to use hands-free phones, which basically confuses the issue.
Many activities and objects both outside and inside the vehicle can pose mental, manual and visual distractions. As a driver, it is important to ensure you do not engage in anything that will distract your driving. Should you engage in distracting behavior and cause an accident, there are steps that you should take. To begin with, you should contact a personal injury attorney. Such an individual will be in the best position to argue your case in the event a suit is filed.
