Severe Dangers of Texting While Driving

Do you know that words can kill? Receiving and texting messages while driving will do just that.

Modern devices like smartphones connected people more than ever, with voice calls, receiving and texting messages, video conferencing and other ways of communicating from almost anywhere. Unfortunately, this positive development for society also poses a danger to the cell phone patron, if not properly utilized. Too many people disregard the advice on the dangers of texting anddriving, resulting in an alarming rate of cell phone distraction accidents.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2016 there were 3,450 fatalities from distracted driving and 486 or 14 percent of deaths were due to driving when using the cell phone.

Understanding the texting and driving risks

Avoid being counted as one of the victims in a texting-driving accident, by educating yourself about the dangers of picking up your phone when you’re behind the wheel.

• Multitasking while driving:

Multitasking is performing more than one complex task at the same time and this is what a number of people do when they text and drive. Simply put, it is not possible for the human brain to handle two related, complicated tasks all at once. Hence, the yearly increase in the number of accidents.

• Taking your eyes off the road

A study reveals that truck drivers who send and receive text messages are 23 times exposed to the danger of colliding compared to those who do not. Importantly, there’s a marked difference between texting and chatting or listening to another passenger or someone on the phone.

Drivers who talk or listen have their eyes glued to the road and were not a safety risk compared to those who text. Text messaging refocuses your eyes on your phone instead of the road.

• Steering with one hand

When you reply to a text message one hand is on the steering wheel and the other is cuddling the phone with the thumb busy typing the reply. When texting, drivers are distracted by trying to read a message and thinking how to reply and typing their message.

The multitasking resulted in a delay to reaction time and vehicle control that places the driver in greater risk than those under the influence of drug and alcohol.

The tendency of the texter-driver is to drift in and out of the lane more and less control of the steering wheel.

• A lawbreaker

Most states have laws against texting and driving, once caught you’ll get a violation ticket for distracted driving and pay a fine.

• Expenses could go up

Think about the cost to repair the damage to your car or somebody else’s. Or maybe innocent people were hurt and you have to shoulder their medical treatment and suffer from a guilty conscience.

Statistics don’t lie

A mountain of vehicular accidents point to texting as the main culprit behind all these. In fact, there are 660,000 drivers throughout the day who attempt to or use their phone while behind the wheel.

1. The National Safety Council (NSC) reports that 1.6 million crashes were due to cell phone use while driving.
2. Almost 390,000 injuries happen every year from mishaps caused by texting and driving.
3. One out of four road crashes in the US is due to texting and messaging.
4. Messaging while driving is six times more to cause an accident than driving under the influence of alcohol.
5. Replying to a text message takes your mind off things for around five seconds, which is equivalent to traveling a whole football field at 55 mph.
6. Texting is the most dangerous activity compared to all cell phone tasks.
7. 94 percent of drivers support the prohibition of messaging while driving.
8. 74 percent of drivers support a restriction of cell-phone use when behind the wheel.

If you are a victim of a texting driver gather all the receipts of your medical treatment. Inform the police about the accident. Take a photo of the scene of the crime to preserve proof, and ask for a copy of the police report.

Contact a personal injury attorney Las Vegas. Your attorney will be at your side from inception to appeal. He will need the evidence you gathered and all the documents related to the accident to evaluate the merits of the case.