Personal Injury Law

Cell phone use while driving stats and car crashes

By Brian F. LaBovick, Esq.

We all know that accidents can happen when a driver is experiencing distractions. It is a no-brainer that texting or talking on a hand held cell phone while driving can be dangerous. In fact, there are a few states have made it illegal to use hand held cell phones while driving, those states include California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah, and Washington) and the District of Columbia. According to the Institute for HIghway Safety, there are states that have left it up to local government to ban cell phone use, those states include Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, and Pennsylvania) specifically.  On the otherhand, there are 8 states prevent localities from  from banning cellphone, our very own State of Florida, is among the group of states, including Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah.

We came across some useful studies and statistics that we felt our Injury Law Blog Readers would find useful. We encourage you to share and pass this along.  If we help save the life of one individual, by sharing these statistics, we will be grateful. Our Florida Law Firm partners with the Dori Slosberg Foundation and proudly supports their efforts in promoting driving safety among teens. Managing Partner, Brian LaBovick, joins Frmr. State Representative Irv Slosberg by speaking at High School Assemblies to High School students about  the importance of highway safety for teen drivers.

Important Safety Stats on driving safety and cell phone use:

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the U.S. Department of Transportation's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) shared that in 2007, teens accounted for 12 percent of motor vehicle crash deaths. (Note: there were 4,956 teen deaths involving motor vehicles).

AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety released a report on Cell Phone driving and research update and provided the following:

• Over half of U.S. drivers report having used a cell phone while driving.
• Onee in seven drivers admits to text messaging while driving.
• Young drivers were overwhelmingly more likely to text message, and somewhat more likely to talk on cell phones while driving than older drivers.
• Higher levels of education were also found to be associated with higher levels of cell phone use and text messaging while driving, especially among males.
• Dialing a hand-held device was associated with nearly triple the odds of being involved in a crash or near-crash, and talking or listening to a hand-held device was associated with about a 30% increase in the odds of being involved in a crash or near-crash.

We encourage you to be safe and to exercise caution while driving and using a cell phone. To read more from the American Automobile Association cell phone driving report click on the following link.

injurylaw.labovick.com/uploads/file/AAA_cell phones_and_driving_report(1).pdf

Full post as published by LaBovick Injury Law Blog on February 09, 2009 (boomark / email).