Distracting Driving Leads to Fatal Crashes | Bellevue Car Accident Attorney

An article taken from Distraction.gov lists statistics and facts about the dangers and rising fatalities linked to distracted driving.

They list three different types of distractions:
-Visual
-Manual
-Cognitive

Within these three types of distractions:
-Cell phone, PDA, MP3 or GPS use
-Eating, drinking or grooming
-Conversing with other passengers
-Reading a map
-Changing the radio station or car stereo use

Any of the above distractions were involved in reports of 20% of injury crashes in 2009. 5,474 people were killed in the U.S. and approximately 448,000 were injured in car crashes involving distracted driving. The ratio of distracted driving and fatalities increased from 10% in 2005 to 16% in 2009. Of the 1,517,000 injury crashes, approximately 20% were caused by distracted driving.

Cell phone use is probably the most common and recognizable form of distracted driving. It can be the most dangerous, as it involved all three of the above types of distrations (visual, manual and cognitive). Whether it is a hand-held or hands-free device, cell phne use delays the driver's reaction time comperable to having a blood alcohol concentration of .08%. 18% of distracted driving fatalities reportedly involved cell phone use. The National Highway Traffic Safety  Adminstration conducted a survey in 2009 which showed that hand-held devices were in use by 672,000, or 9% of drivers at any given moment between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

If you have been injured in a car accident, The Andrew Kim Law Firm can help. For a free consultation with an experienced attorney, call (425) 289-1990 in the Bellevue area, (253) 682-2000 in Tacoma or toll free at (800) 636-3676.