Driver Attention Deficit Disorder

If you operate a car in Miami, chances are you’ve seen this scene or something like it: You’re driving along a fairly busy freeway at or near the posted speed limit. You’re keeping a safe distance from the vehicle in front, when all of a sudden you see another car in the lane next to you begin to drift towards your own car. The driver of the car should be able to see yours, since she’s right next to you, but she continues to move over. You slam on the brakes as she slides into your lane, narrowly avoiding an accident. As you change lanes to move around her, you glance over and see that she’s not looking at the road; she’s looking down at her phone, texting. Coincidentally or not, the next billboard you see is an ad for a Miami car accident attorney. Somehow you avoid the temptation to pull out your cell phone and call the number listed. Distracted driving has reached epidemic proportions. Although many states have passed strict laws against driving while using a phone or texting, the numbers of car accidents resulting from distracted driving continue to grow. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has some sobering statistics regarding the problem, particularly related to texting. A driver who uses a handheld device while driving is four times more likely to be involved in an injury accident. Drivers who text behind the wheel are 23 times more likely to be involved in an accident. Sending a text while driving requires you to take your eyes off the road for an alarming 4.6 seconds – or, as the NHTSA’s analogy has it – driving the length of a football field blindfolded. Shocking as these statistics are, they don’t seem to be having much of an impact, at least not yet. In 2009, nearly 5,500 people died as a result of accidents caused by distracted drivers, and nearly half a million were injured. Personal Injury attorneys who deal in car accident claims know that state laws regarding distracted driving are difficult to enforce. Law enforcement officers often cannot tell if a driver is distracted by an electronic device or some other cause of inattention. After an accident, police and attorneys often have to rely on cell phone or other electronic records to establish whether the device was in use at the time of the collision. But even these records aren’t infallible. For now, Miami and other Florida cities have no prohibitions against using cell phones while driving. So as distracted drivers become an increasingly present hazard, the burden of avoiding car accidents rests with those drivers who are willing to take on the responsibility of keeping their attention fixed on the car, the road, and the other individuals on it. Until everyone is willing to assume that role, police, medical workers, insurance adjusters, and Miami car accident attorneys will not lack for customers.