Distracted Driving Victims Law Firm
I. Introduction
In the last few years it has become commonplace to see people driving while talking on a cell phone, texting, putting on make-up, or eating. As common as these activities have become, they distract drivers from safely operating their vehicles. Each day, 16 people are killed and 1,300 injured in crashes involving a distracted driver.[i] In the past five years, about 3.5% of all drivers have been involved in a crash that they attribute to being distracted, equating to an estimated 6.0 to 8.3 million drivers nationally.[ii] Distracted driving presents specific evidentiary challenges for lawyers prosecuting the claims. This paper defines and describes distracted driving; presents pertinent national, state, and local distracted driving regulations and statutes; offers specific suggestions for lawyers involved in distracted driving litigation; and, gives a perspective of Texas distracted driving verdicts.
II. Definition and Statistics
Distracted driving is any activity an operator of a motor vehicle is engaged in that both distracts them from their primary task of driving and increases their risk of an accident.[iii] Distractions are generally categorized as visual (taking one's eyes of the road), manual (taking one's hands off the wheel), or cognitive (taking one's mind off of driving).[iv] There is virtually an unlimited number of items that tempt a driver to distraction, such as cell phones, iPods, radios, iPads, Blackberry's, GPS and navigation systems, computers, DVD players, eating, maps, newspapers and other occupants in the vehicle. It is important to note that drunk driving, while technically considered "impaired driving," is similar to distracted driving in that the ingested alcohol or drug decreases the driver's visual, manual, and cognitive skills rather than some outside agency.[v] The dangers presented by impaired drivers have long been a part of our national vehicle safety consciousness, and are an important element that needs to be remembered in the current distracted driving debate.
According to the National Highway Transportation Administration, distracted driving is a major source of vehicle morbidity and mortality.[vi] In 2009, 5,474 people were killed and 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers.[vii] As a percentage of overall motor vehicle morbidity and mortality, 16% of all deaths and 20% of all injuries involve distracted driving.[viii] The proportion of fatalities associated with driver distraction has increased from 10 % in 2005, to 16 % in 2009.[ix] During this same period, fatal crashes with reported driver distraction increased from 10% to 16%.[x] The largest demographic contributor to distracted driving accidents was the under-20 age group, who were involved in 16% of all fatal distracted driving accidents.[xi]
Similar to the national statistics, distracted driving has had major consequences for Texas. In 2009, nearly one in four crashes in Texas involved driver distraction.[xii] During that same year, over 100,000 vehicles were involved in accidents where distraction in vehicle, driver inattention, or cell phone use was cited as a contributing factor-408 of those crashes were fatal.[xiii] In 2009, alcohol related fatalities nationally were 10,839, down 7.4% from 2008.[xiv] Out of these 10,839 fatalities, Texas was responsible for a 956 deaths that occurred in 27,237 DUI crashes.[xv]
III. Electronic Devices
Drivers using electronic devices is one of the primary sources of driver distraction.[xvi] This includes the use of handheld phones, computers, iPads, DVD players, and navigation devices. Now that handheld devices are an unfortunate, but established, part of our driving environment, their use is the most documented and studied source of electronic device distraction. Drivers who use handheld devices are four times more likely to be involved in crashes serious enough to injure themselves or others.[xvii] Nationally, in 2009, of those persons killed or injured in distracted driving related crashes, 18% (995 fatalities) and 5% (24,000 injuries) involved reports of cell phone use by the driver.[xviii] In Texas, 3,308 crashes were attributed to cell phone use in 2009; 41 of which were fatal.[xix]
Research on the use of handheld devices while driving has supported these troubling statistics. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the use of cell phones in motor vehicles results in a quadrupling of the risk of collision.[xx] A widely recognized Virginia Tech study found that drivers dialing a cell phone made the risk of a crash or near-crash event 2.8 higher than that of a non-distracted driver, while talking or listening to a cell phone made the risk of a crash or near-crash event 1.3 times higher.[xxi] More troubling are texting drivers, who are 23.2 times more likely to be involved in a crash or near-crash event than non-distracted drivers.[xxii] Not surprisingly, studies have also shown that cell phone use is as dangerous as driving while impaired. A University of Utah study found that cell phone use caused distractions for motorists as serious as driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08%, the legal definition of driving while intoxicated.[xxiii] A British study found that driver reaction times for cell phone users deteriorated by 35%, much worse than those who drank alcohol at the legal limit, which was found to be 12%.[xxiv] In addition, this study found that drivers who sent or read text messages were more prone to drift out of their lane, with steering control by texters being 91% poorer than drivers who devote their full concentration to the road.[xxv] Collectively, this data confirms that certain activities routinely undertaken by drivers are distractions that decrease their ability to safely operate a motor vehicle, and put the public's safety at risk.
[i]. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Distracted Driving (June 20, 2011), http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/Distracted_Driving/index.html.
[ii]. Texas Department of Transportation, Distracted Driving - Talk, Text, Crash Campaign Messages and Media Q&A (June 20, 2011), ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/safety/distracted/media_qa.pdf.
[iii]. CDC, supra n. 1.
[iv]. Id.
[v]. See generally Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Motor Vehicle Safety (July 14, 2011), http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/index.html.
[vi]. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Distracted Driving 2009 (June 21, 2011), http://www.distraction.gov/research/PDF-Files/Distracted-Driving-2009.pdf.
[vii]. Id.
[viii]. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Statistics and Facts About Distracted Driving (June 21, 2011), http://www.distraction.gov/stats-and-facts/index.html.
[ix]. Id.
[x]. Id.
[xi]. Id.
[xii]. Texas Department of Transportation, Talk, Text, Crash (June 22, 2011), ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/safety/distracted/fact.pdf.
[xiii]. Id.
[xiv]. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Alcohol Impaired Driving (June 23, 2011), http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811155.PDF.
[xv]. Texas Department of Transportation, DUI (Alcohol) Crashes and Injuries by County (June 24, 2011), http://www.dot.state.tx.us/txdot_library/drivers_vehicles/publications/.
[xvi]. TEXDOT, supra n. 2.
[xvii]. NHTSA, supra n. 3.
[xviii]. Id.
[xix]. TEXDOT, supra n. 8.
[xx]. Donald A. Redelmeier, Association between Cellular-Telephone Calls and Motor Vehicle Collisions, 336 New Eng. J. of Med. 453-58 (1997).
[xxi]. Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, New Data from VTTI Provides Insight into Cell Phone Use and Driving Distraction (June 11, 2011), http://www.vtti.vt.edu/PDF/7-22-09-VTTI-Press_Release_Cell_phones_and_Driver_Distraction.pdf.
[xxii]. Id.
[xxiii]. David L. Strayer et. al., A Comparison of the Cell Phone Driver and the Drunk, Human Factors 381-91 (Summer 2006).
[xxiv]. Helen Nugent, Texting while driving is more dangerous than drink-driving, The Sunday Times (Sept. 18, 2008).
[xxv]. Id.
