With fully 10 percent of all automobile accidents these days caused by drivers who are distracted, increasingly by electronic gadgets, distracted driving is always a huge problem. But summertime is worse than usual. Drivers who simply reach for something are more than three times as likely to end up causing an accident, but those who text while driving are actually 23 times more likely to end up causing an accident.
As one can probably imagine, the problem is worse for teen drivers, especially during the summer months. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey taken in 2011, in which high school students were asked about dangerous activities they’d conducted while driving during the previous 30 days, 45 percent admitted to having texted once or more, and nearly one out of every four said they texted while driving daily.
The statistics show this is no idle boast. According to AAA and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, of the ten deadliest days of the year for young drivers, seven of them occur during the summer.
Cell phone service provider Verizon Wireless is trying to take a proactive position on distracted driving , especially while using their products. They want people to send texts to their friends and family, just not while they’re driving. So the company is touring the country with a simulated car, and offering test drives to young drivers, to make them aware of the dangers of distracted driving. Just this once, they ask teens to get into the phony car and drive, and encourage them to read and type a text while doing so. The results are predictable, and they get to see it with their own eyes.
The company has found that the teens who take the challenge and crash their simulated vehicle tend to get the message and promise to wait until they’re stopped before reading or sending a text message.
Thousands of drivers are killed or injured each year by distracted drivers and teen texting and driving in Texas, with many of them teens who are just learning to drive, so anything the cell phone companies can do to alleviate the problem is welcome. If either you or a loved one has been injured or killed in an automobile accident, and you suspect the driver who caused the accident was distracted, contact the Texas Distracted Driving Accident Lawyer at Hill Law Firm as soon as possible to protect your rights.