According to Driving Laws, North Carolina’s distracted driving law “prohibits all motorists from texting and emailing while driving.” The ban also includes reading emails, text messages or scrolling through Facebook while driving (it does not apply to a motorist who is lawfully parked or stopped at a stoplight). As such, not only is distracted driving dangerous, it’s against the law. Unfortunately, many still do and will continue to do so because motorists are rarely pulled over for simply texting while driving. Only when an accident occurs by a driver who is texting while driving and someone gets injured does anyone seem to be interested in changing the behavior. With that in mind, today we’ll discuss critical reasons to stop texting while driving, and when you should seek skilled Durham Personal Injury Lawyer to pursue compensation for your personal injuries if you’ve been in a motor vehicle accident caused by something who was texting while driving.
3 Types of Distracted Driving
You can become distracted while driving for a variety of reasons (just ask a parent who is driving young children). These reasons fall into 3 categories: manual, cognitive and visual. Texting while driving falls into all three categories since it visually takes your eyes off the road, requires that you manually use one or both hands to text, and forces your mind to process the information within the text regardless of if you are sending or receiving. While we could argue that problem solving why your son is hitting your daughter in the back seat might be just as distracting, texting while driving has proven to be the most fatal. If it wasn’t, there would not be a need for a Durham Personal Injury Lawyer to get involved. Still need convincing that you should put your phone down and just focus on the road? Here are two critical reasons to stop texting while driving.
Texting while Driving diverts your attention from the road:
While you may think simply glancing at your phone for .25 seconds won’t cause any harm, the fact is that if you are reading or responding to a text, email, social media, etc is that your eyes and your brain are not focused on the road. In fact, a driver looks away from the road, on average, for five seconds to respond or read a message. Five seconds may not sound like much time, but when you’re behind the wheel going 55 miles per hour or more, that five seconds is all you need to drive the length of a football field. A football player would be blasted if he diverted his attention from running the field to check his phone during the final play of the game.
Just because you think you’re a safe driver, doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone else is. It’s up to you to pay attention to what you’re doing. If your eyes are not on the road, anything can happen. Maybe you barely miss that the speed limit changes, but the results could be fatal. You are 23 times more likely to crash when you text and drive. Do you really want to change it? Rather, wait until you’re safely parked (or at least stopped), before reading and responding to your phone.
Texting while driving can lead to a fatal accident
We readily admit that not every accident that was caused by a distracted driver who was texting leads to a fatality, the reality is that a fair amount of them do. In fact, the National Safety Council reports there are nearly 390,000 injuries each year from motorized vehicle accidents caused by texting while driving – that’s 1 in 4 car accidents. Furthermore, any use of cell phones while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes every year; and that texting while driving is 6x more likely to result in a crash, even more than drunk driving.
Most simply put, texting while driving causes problems, even if you’re just driving in a parking lot. But fatalities can be prevented. Just put your phone down while you drive. Easy, right? If not, or you just have trouble resisting temptation to respond to the ding of a notification, there are plenty of apps that can silence your notifications while you’re driving.
Skilled Personal Injury Lawyer in Durham, NC
If you were injured in a motor vehicle accident that was caused by a distracted driver, you have a right to pursue fair and just compensation for your injuries. Durham attorney, Kevin E. Jones, is dedicated to fighting on behalf for those who have been personally injured and will do what is necessary to ensure the responsible party is held liable for your injuries. You should not have to pay for someone else’s texting mistakes.
Get started on your personal injury case today and reach out to our law firm to learn more about how we can assist you.