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There are a lot of dangers of texting and driving. Texting and driving is categorized as distracted driving. Distracted driving is labeled as any activity that takes the driver's attention away from their driving activities. This includes eating or drinking, talking to other people in the vehicle, talking on your phone, and any other action that will take your attention away from safe driving.
Thousands of lives are lost in fatal crashes as a result of texting and driving. In the seconds that you take your eyes off the road to read a text while driving at a speed of 50 mph or above, you are likely to cause an accident. The only time you can drive safely is if you have your full attention on the road. Any activity that one gets involved in while driving increases the risk of getting into motor vehicle accidents.
In recent times, there is a rise in the number of people glued to their phones’ screens while driving on the road. If you are texting and driving while on the road and cause a fatal accident, you will be penalized. You will suffer losses since you will be liable to pay for compensation.
Distracted driving is categorized as something visual or something else that would cause the driver to look away from the road. It can be manual or something that causes distracted drivers to take their hands off a steering wheel. Texting falls in all of these categories. It causes manual, visual, and cognitive distractions when an individual is behind the wheel.
There are a lot of risks related to this type of distraction. Here are some of the dangers of hand-held cell phone use while driving.
The few seconds that you take to read that text from your phone can cause a severe accident leading to death. If you are moving at a fast speed or even at average speed and you are distracted, you will not notice traffic signs. As a result, you can end up hitting a pedestrian on the crosswalk. Depending on the impact, it can end in a fatality. It also becomes even more difficult to see other vehicles including motorcycles or bicycle riders.
It is possible to get into a fatal collision with a truck, a commercial vehicle, or a regular car. It can result in a fatality if the passengers on both cars are severely hurt. When you are thinking about a fatality, you should not only think about the driver on the other side, or the pedestrian walking by the road but also consider your own life. You may not live to tell the story, and you may end up being part of the statistics in Decatur, Georgia as a result of the risky behavior.
As a result of a Decatur auto accident, your life, the pedestrian’s life, and the life of the other person on the wheel or another victim can change drastically. You can get severe injuries that may leave you incapacitated, and you will end up incurring substantial medical bills while trying to get treatment.
You can end up with heavy penalties when the case goes to court and you are found guilty. You can get a jail sentence, and you may have to pay a hefty fine. This will end up straining your finances. Also, as a result of an insurance company paying compensation to the victim on your behalf, your insurance rates will be raised.
The most significant result of texting and driving is loss of life or a severe injury that will alter your life or the life of another. However, you can suffer other consequences as a result of this dangerous behavior. Here are some of the other risk factors to consider before you start texting and driving.
In most states, it is illegal to text and drive. In Decatur, it can get you a ticket and fine. The punishment on a texting driver will be severe depending on the intensity of the accident.
If you are fortunate, you will not end up hitting anyone or causing harm to yourself. However, as a result of texting and driving, your car will be wrecked after a crash. Repairing a damaged car is expensive. At times the car owner may have to make a new purchase.
There are lethal consequences of texting and driving. It is best to evaluate the habit to stop engaging in a bad practice that can cause harm to yourself and others.
The best solution for texting and driving would be to stops the habit. It would be reduced a lot of accidents that occur as a result. There are some distractions while driving that the law will not address, such as talking to other passengers and eating while driving.
Education will not curb the problem since most drivers are aware of what they should do, and they just choose to ignore to do the right thing. For these reasons, legal implications are the only solutions left in trying to curb the behavior.
In the nation, 48 states have already passed laws that prohibit drivers from texting and driving. The state of Georgia is of them. Some legal measures have been put in place by both the national and federal governments to help curb texting and driving. Even so, there are a few things that you can do to ensure that you are taking the initiative yourself.
Most phones have an inbuilt auto-respond feature. Even as this is the case, there are still people who have difficulty locating the element or activating it. A few apps that auto-response services such as drive mode, drive safe, or even in-traffic reply. Look for a feature that is suitable for your cell phone.
Most modern phones have an inbuilt do not disturb mode feature. While using the android phone, you can silence phone calls, media alerts, as well as instant messages, alerts. You have the choice of turning on the feature at your own time, or you can schedule that for another time.
The apps can only help you to a certain extent. However, a driver behind the wheels has to be willing to curb the habit by themselves.
Most motor vehicle crashes that occur are a result of distracted driving. In particular, texting and driving account for a majority of these accidents. Here are some statistics that will help you understand the in-depth consequences of texting and driving:
It takes five seconds to read a message, according to the US department of transportation. During those 5 seconds that your eyes are off the road, you have the possibility of driving the length of a football field. That is a long distance to go while your eyes are not on the road.
The time taken to read a message on any electronic device is enough time to cause a distracted driving accident.
According to the National highway traffic safety administration, around 36% of drivers use their handheld devices at a stop sign. 35% of these drivers continue to use their mobile applications while they are driving. Approximately 41.2% of drivers said that they continue using their phones to listen to music and podcasts. mobile applications are potential distractions that can lead to traffic accidents.
According to Virginia tech transportation, a driver texting while driving is six times more likely to get into an accident than one who is driving under the influence of alcohol.
If you or a loved one have been in a car accident resulting from a driver who is texting and driving, you can get help. Our Decatur personal injury lawyers at Marks Law group have previously handled distraction-related crashes and we can help.
