South Florida Injury Lawyers

With school set to begin and new information that suggests teen drivers routinely ignore the dangers of distracted driving, our Fort Lauderdale injury lawyers urge parents to speak with their kids about the dangers posed by poor driving decisions.

A recent study conducted by Seventeen Magazine found that nearly 90 percent of teenagers are aware of the dangers of distracted driving — including the use of a cell phone and text messaging while behind the wheel — yet nearly 90 percent engage in such dangerous driving behaviors anyway.

In response, Seventeen Magazine and the U.S. Department of Transportation are teaming up with a campaign to encourage teens to create a catchy public-service video that will be used to promote safe driving on National Two-Second Turnoff Day, scheduled for September 17.

Government safety officials will also feature the video during the national distracted driving summit, which is scheduled for that week in Washington D.C. As we reported on our South Florida Injury Lawyers Blog, the summit will likely increase the pressure on states like Florida that have done nothing to prohibit teens from text messaging or using cell phones while driving.

“One in four teen drivers say they’ve texted behind the wheel, and that’s a trend we’ve got to confront head on,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “This contest is an innovative and fun way to get teens involved in spreading the word about the importance of keeping their eyes on the road – and off their phones.”

The campaign is aimed at getting teens to take two seconds to turn off their phone before getting behind the wheel — about the same amount of time safety advocates say it takes to get into an accident by taking your eyes off the road.

“Eighty-Six percent of teens know that distracted driving is dangerous—and they do it anyway,” says Ann Shoket, editor in chief of Seventeen Magazine, citing a Seventeen/AAA 2010 survey. “This contest helps teens hammer the real danger of driving while distracted to prevent accidents and save lives.”

Teens can download an application here.
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We’ve probably all done it. In fact, Florida’s mix of heavily urban areas that feed into more rural bedroom communities lends itself to it. You get off the freeway, and you relax your grip on the wheel, assuming you are home free.

But, if nationwide statistics are any indication, Palm Beach car accidents, and traffic accidents elsewhere in Florida, are most likely to occur on rural roads. The USA Today reports that 57 percent of highway deaths nationwide happen on roads designated as rural.

The Center of Excellence in Rural Safety at the University of Minnesota found that 84 percent of those surveyed said they felt safe on rural interstates. And 79 percent felt safe on rural two-lane highways, compared to 69 percent on multi-lane freeways in urban areas.

Drivers who feel more comfortable are also more likely to engage in distracted driving habits, such as using a cell phone, eating, drinking or utilizing in-car electronics. Such behavior could be at least partly responsible for the increased risk.

“People seem to feel more comfortable on those roads, even though the facts show that it’s more dangerous,” says Lee Munnich, director of the center. “They feel more relaxed and, as a result, they are engaging in behavior that is riskier.”

The only exception to the rule was for speeders, who said they felt safer going faster on large urban highways than on rural roads. Many rural accidents are single-vehicle accidents involving a car that loses control and leaves the roadway, a dynamic that could be explained by how motorists perceive risk.

“The more people perceive they have control, the less they perceive a situation as being risky,” Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
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The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced it will hold a second distracted driving summit on Sept. 21, as it continues to highlight the problem and looks for ways to combat it, the Washington Post reported.

The news is significant for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Florida’s utter failure to act. As our Fort Lauderdale injury lawyers reported earlier this month, the blame for the lack of a distracted driving law in Florida rests squarely on Tallahassee politicians. Not only is Florida one of just a few states that has not outlawed texting while driving, but our lawmakers have actually passed a law forbidding local governments from doing their work for them.

The result is a state full of visitors, vacationers, senior drivers and drivers talking on their cell phones and text messaging. When the federal accident statistics are released in the coming weeks, it will be no coincidence that Florida is among the states with the highest number of fatal accidents in the nation.

We suspect the government is very close to linking the passage of text-messaging bans to federal highway funding — it is the same tactic it has used to bring states into nationwide compliance with drunk driving and seat belt enforcement. While the safety of voters has not prompted the state legislature to act, we think the likelihood of losing millions of highway safety dollars will make passing a distracted driving law a priority.

Especially since there appears to be very little money lining up on the other side of the argument. The New York Times reports that a Washington law firm has withdrawn plans to create a lobbying group of cell phone and automakers to fight distracted driving laws. The plan was hammered earlier this week in public remarks by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. While cell phone makers have been a little slow to rise to the issue, they have at least quit marketing their products as “car phones.”

The Washington summit will gather researchers, law enforcement officers, transportation officials, safety advocates, industry representatives and victims of distracted driving crashes. Nationwide, an estimated 6,000 people are killed and more than 500,000 are injured each year in accidents caused by distracted driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“Working together, we can put an end to the thousands of needless deaths and injuries caused by distracted driving each year,” said Secretary LaHood. “By getting the best minds together, I believe we can figure out how to get people to put down their phones and pay attention to the road.”
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Drowsy driving is the cause of a significant number of Palm Beach car accidents and traffic accidents throughout South Florida. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated at least 100,000 traffic accidents are the direct result of fatigued driving each year.

The government estimates these crashes lead to more than 1,550 traffic deaths and 71,000 injuries each year, though any accurate estimate is difficult for a number of reasons, including lack of reporting requirements. In countries with better reporting, including England and Australia, drowsy driving is responsible for as many as 30 percent of all crashes.

Our Palm Beach injury lawyers encourage drivers to remain aware of the dangers of driving while tired and urge you to follow the necessary safety precautions while behind the wheel.

The National Sleep Foundation provides the following information for motorists:

Scope: Sixty percent of drivers, or about 168 million people, admit to driving while drowsy within the last year. One-third acknowledge having fallen asleep while behind the wheel.

At Risk: The most at-risk drivers are those ages 18 to 29. Men are more likely to drive while drowsy than women and are almost twice as likely to fall asleep at the wheel. Shift workers are also at high risk, as well as those who sleep less than 6-7 hours a night. Impaired drivers and drivers with sleeping disorders are also at increased risk of falling asleep behind the wheel.

Other Drowsy Driving Facts:

-Drivers who are drowsy are more likely to experienced stress, get impatient or drive faster.

-Only about 1 in 5 drivers admitted to pulling over when experiencing sleepiness while behind the wheel.

-Drivers tend to fall asleep more on high-speed, long, boring, rural highways.

-Most accidents or near-accidents occur between 4 and 6 a.m. Midnight to 4 a.m. are also peak times.

-One-quarter of adults say they know someone who has crashed while falling asleep at the wheel.
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Planning a road trip this summer? Then don’t forget to pack a list of state and local regulations regarding text messaging and using a cell phone while behind the wheel. Currently, Florida and South Carolina are the only two states without laws aimed at reducing the dangers of traffic accidents caused by text messaging and cell phone use.

Our Port St. Lucie injury lawyers urge drivers considering a summer road trip to know the rules of the road. And we remind you that the best way to ensure compliance with whatever law happens to be in effect — as well as the safety of you and your passengers — is to refrain from text messaging or using a cell phone while driving.

MSNBC reports that the patchwork of laws enacted in recent years will leave those on a road trip open to fines ranging from $20 to $150. In every case, knowledge of the law is the motorist’s responsibility.

“Drivers are still responsible for knowing the cell phone laws that apply in each state,” said AAA spokesperson Nancy White.

In some states, motorists may be subjected to more than one law. For example, Illinois outlaws text messaging while driving but the City of Chicago prohibits all use of hand-held cell phones.

Florida is one of the only states — perhaps the only state — that has both failed to pass a distracted driving law and passed legislation prohibiting city and county governments from enacting their own safety measures.

The Governors Highway Safety Association provides a comprehensive list of distracted driving laws in each state:

-Eight states ban the use of hand-held cell phones: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington.

-Twenty-eight states ban the use of cell phones by young drivers.

-Thirty states ban text messaging while driving.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 6,000 people are killed and more than 500,000 are injured in distracted driving accidents each year. Cell phone use and text messaging are responsible for a large number of the crashes. Other forms of distracted driving include eating, drinking, smoking, talking to passengers, grooming, applying makeup, reading or using in-car electronics.
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