Dangers Of Texting While Driving

Why wait to text? – The Truth behind the Dangers of texting while driving

Distracted driving is a problem in New Mexico. We have all heard public service announcements proclaiming the dangers of texting while driving.  Beyond the fact that it is generally just a good idea not to text and drive many states have enacted laws penalizing drivers who do use their phones while driving.  Yet, use continues to this day.  As personal injury attorneys we are in a unique position to observe the detrimental effects that cellphone use and texting, specifically, can have on the average driver.  Having represented victims of distracted driving, we have compiled the following statistics into our own “public service announcement” and hope you take the numbers to heart. 

•  10% of drivers between the ages of 16 to 24 years old are on their phone at any one time³ and the average teen in the United States now sends or receives an average of 2,899 text-messages per month.
•  As if that weren’t bad enough, 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. Now, let’s be fair, teens aren’t always texting, but we’re still talking about 3335 seconds (or almost an hour) of on-road distraction per month, even at ¼ of the total listed above.
•  A recently released study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that truck drivers who were texting were 23% more likely to crash than those paying attention to the road.  Likewise, a 2007 study by Clemson University found that “text messaging and using iPods caused drivers to leave their lanes 10 percent more often.”
•  Distraction from cell phone use while driving extends a driver’s reaction as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08%, and drivers that use cell phones (we’re not even talking about texting here) are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves.
•  Driving while distracted is a factor in 25% of police reported crashes, which really isn’t that surprising if you consider the fact that driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%.

We hope to have made it perfectly clear just how dangerous texting and driving can be.   At the Davis Kelin Law Firm we believe that every driver on the road, regardless of age, has a duty to other drivers to use roads in a reasonable and safe manner.  The bottom line is that texting while driving is neither reasonable, nor safe.  If you were injured because another driver could not be bothered to wait to text, we encourage you to visit us at: Daviskelin.com for more information on how we may be able to ensure compensation for the injuries they caused. If you have a wrongful death case or related case in connection to distracted driving we would be happy to take a look at your case. Visit the contact an attorney page here or give us a call at (505)242-7200