The real risk of distracted driving

On Behalf of | Dec 27, 2019 | Firm News, personal injury |

Technology isn’t going anywhere. For better or worse, instant communication is here to stay. Smartphones are the future, replacing not just standard phones, but also computers, cameras, calculators and much, much more.

This change has a lot of positives, but there’s one huge negative: distracted driving. Now, distractions are from more than just phones. Issues like texting and driving make up a huge amount of distracted driving incidents. These crashes lead to injuries and fatalities — and they are crashes that simply would not have happened 20 years ago.

What does the risk look like? Per the 2017 statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were 2,935 crashes that were affected by distraction. These crashes led to 3,166 deaths. That means that distraction contributed to about 9% of the deadly accidents in the country.

There’s one important thing to note about these stats: They probably represent the floor. The ceiling could be much higher. It is not always easy to prove that distraction caused an accident. Some drivers who got distracted may lie. Others may pass away in the accidents, taking knowledge of their own distraction with them. The NHTSA reported on the cases they could prove, but it stands to reason that far more accidents involved distraction without that proof.

Have you gotten injured due to the reckless, negligent actions of a distracted driver? It happens a lot, and it’s not likely to change anytime soon. You must know what legal options you have to seek compensation for medical bills, lost wages and other such costs.