Chicago Personal Injury Lawyers are becoming very rich from the increasing number of car accidents caused by distracted drivers. Cell phones are the leading cause of truck accidents and car accidents and the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA) reports that banning cell phone use while driving has lead to marked decrease in car accidents in the states where texting and phone bans have been enacted. The GHSA report also states that hands-free phones are no less dangerous than handheld phones.
Currently, nine states prohibit all drivers from using handheld phones while driving from using handheld phones while driving, while 34 states have banned text messaging for all drivers. However, no state has banned all cellphone use for all drivers.
Distracted driving vs. drunk driving, which is worse? Distracted driving is much broader than cellphone use and includes any activity that diverts a driver’s attention from the road. Oklahoma Law Journal reports that distracted drivers are 23 times more likely to cause a motor vehicle accident compared with drunk drivers who are seven times as likely to cause a car accident. Wow! In 2009, 16% of the 33,308 car accident fatalities were caused by a distracted driver and research suggests that up to 80 percent of driver fatalities may bne attributable to driver distraction.
Your Chicago Car Accident Lawyers at Grazian and Volpe want to offer the following tips to prevent distracted driving and help keep everyone on the road safer.
- Secure your pets
- turn off your phone before turning on your car-better yet program an a message stating that you are practicing safe driving by turning your phone off -spread the word to others! At least pull over and park before answering a call.
- Don’t argue with others and tell the children fighting is punishable, potentially by death, if their arguing leads to your distraction
- Know where your going before you put the car into drive-program the GPS while parked.
- Be French and never eat unless you are at a table or at least parked-it will probably save you some calories, as well!
Remember it is always better to stay safe, but if you can’t stay safe, stay with Grazian and Volpe. Keep our phone number in your cellphone in the event you can’t avoid the distracted driver at 773.838.8100.
