Alabama Car Accident Lawyer Blog

Distraction is deadly. Recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows that crashes attributed to distracted driving killed 3,092 people last year.

On Tuesday, after completing its investigation of a 2010 highway accident in Gray Summit, Mo., where a pickup driver who had been texting ran into a truck and set off a series of collisions that killed two and injured 38, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued its strongest warning yet on distracted driving.

The NTSB made the decision to aggressively call for all 50 states to ban the non-emergency use of portable electronic devices for all drivers. No exceptions. The recommendation by the NTSB went on to say that there should be a major media campaign informing drivers of the decision and a high-visibility enforcement of the bans by police officers to ensure strict compliance.

There are four types of driver distraction - visual, aural, manual and cognitive - and use of portable electronic devices, including cell phones, involves several, if not all. According to a recent article in the Washington Post on distracted driving and car accidents a 2008 study published in the journal Brain Research as well as another in the Journal of Experimental Psychology show that it is more distracting to engage in a cellphone conversation than it is to talk with a passenger.

As recent as September 2010, a study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute of commercial drivers (18 wheeler drivers) found that a safety-critical event is 163 times more likely if a driver is texting, e-mailing or accessing the Internet on a portable electronic device.

The cost of being constantly connected is too high. Want proof? Just ask the families of those 3,092 people who died last year. No phone call, no text, no electronic update is worth a human life.

As Huntsville car wreck attorneys we routinely see accidents that are caused by distracted driving. If you've been the victim of such a texting-related automobile accident and need help deciding the proper course of action, contact our skilled Alabama auto accident lawyers today.

See Our Recent Blog Posts:

More Alabama Drivers Admit to Distracted Driving

Settlement Reached in Huntsville Alabama Car Wreck Caused by Texting Driver

According to CBS42.com out of Birmingham, while nationwide the number of fatalities on the roadways are at a sixty year low, the number of driving deaths in Alabama saw an increase after years of decline. Further,according to the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, the total number of traffic accidents increased long with the number of fatalities, also after years of steady decline.

Clay Ingram with AAA of Alabama said that this year, "We saw little bit of an increase in Alabama, an extra 14 fatalities compared to the year before." Ingram attributes the rise to an increase in distracted driving such as texting and emailing on smartphones.

Ingram says that, "Distraction come in a lot of different forms, it can be anything from billboards, to other cars on the road, changing the radio station, eating and drinking and then or course texting."

According to the Governor's Highway Safety Association, Alabama has no law concerning texting and adult drivers. Ingram believes that the legislature should pay such a law containing stiff penalties. Having such a ban in place would allow Alabama to see the same reduction in fatalities that other states have seen.

Accidents will always happen, but Ingram says there are ways we can reduce them from happening. "Be alert, pay attention, and reduce any type of potential distractions, and be safer drivers."

As Birmingham car wreck attorneys we routinely see the devastating aftermath of accidents caused by distracted driving. If you've been the victim of such an accident and need help navigating confusing legal waters, contact our skilled Alabama car accident lawyers today.

According to a recent report by Joan Lowy of the Associated Press, a 50% increase in texting while driving occurred in the past year despite a wave of efforts to ban the practice by state legislatures across the country. The study confirms that there are more distracted drivers in Alabama than ever before, with 2 in 10 drivers sending text messages while behind the wheel.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is behind the survey and each year monitors drivers' behavior. Their survey is conducted by standing at random intersections and watching to see who uses cellphones or smartphones and what the drivers do with them. This year's survey found that at any given time approximately 1% of all drivers are either sending text messages or otherwise typing on their phones.

These results were confirmed in separate telephone survey where 18% of drivers admit to having sent text messages or checked emails while driving. Among drivers between the ages of 21 and 24 that number jumps to 50%. The telephone survey went on to confirm that most drivers see no problem answering a cellphone call while driving.

NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said that, "What's clear from all of the information we have is that driver distraction continues to be a major problem."

These increases in texting fly in the face of governmental efforts to restrict the practice. Just last month Pennsylvania became the 35th state to ban texting while driving, apparently to little effect.

Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, said the increase is cause for concern. "It is clear that educational messages alone aren't going to change their behavior," Adkins said. "Rather, good laws with strong enforcement are what is needed. Many drivers won't stop texting until they fear getting a ticket."

While drivers may not think that answering an email while waiting at a red-light is a problem, NHTSA officials released a study that found an estimated 3,092 deaths resulted from distracted driving in 2010. So many deaths are a high price to pay for the convenience of constant electronic connectedness.

As Huntsville Alabama car wreck attorneys we routinely see accidents that are caused by distracted driving. If you've been the victim of such a texting-related accident and need help deciding the proper course of action, contact our skilled Alabama auto accident lawyers today.

See Our Recent Alabama Car Accident Lawyer Blog Posts:

New Study Challenges Whether Graduated Driver's License Laws Meet Their Goal
Labor Day Holiday Car Accident Statistics for Alabama's Roadways

A recent article in the Birmingham News reviewed an article by the Los Angeles Times on whether a national trend towards graduated driver license have actually backfired. Alabama passed such a law in the summer of 2010 in an attempt to reduce the number of teenage car accidents in Alabama. To see more information on the law passed in Alabama, please see our Alabama Injury Attorney Blog article entitled Alabama's Graduated Driver License Law dated September 3, 2010.

The JAMA study discussed in the newspaper articles looked at crashes involving 16 to 19 year old drivers and the effect graduated driver license laws (GDL) have had on the number of fatal collisions. According to the study, the number of fatal automobile wrecks among 16 and 17 year olds declined; however, the number of fatal crashes among 18 to 19 year olds rose by an equal amount. "The controls placed on new drivers -- including night driving, cellphone use, limiting the number of passengers -- to shield them has resulted in shifting the number of fatal crashes from them to an older age group, according to the study." (Driver's Side: Do graduated driver licenses really shift teen fatalities? - The Birmingham News). For example, the state of Florida passed a GDL law in 1996, and since that time the program has been linked to 1,348 fewer fatal auto accidents involving 16 year olds; however, there have been 1,086 more fatal wrecks involving 18 year old drivers.

While the JAMA study found GDL laws have a negative effect on older teen drivers a study by the journal Traffic Injury Prevention did not. So it appears that the jury is still out on the overall effect of GDL laws. As Huntsville Alabama car wreck attorneys we routinely see accidents that are caused by distracted driving. Thus,it seems that there needs to be laws in place to reduce the number of distracted drivers the question is what should these laws be and how should they be implemented.