National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Wants States to Ban Texting, cell phones while driving
December 14, 2011
The National Transportation Safety Board has declared that it is simply too dangerous to text, email, or chat on the phone while driving. The NTSB is recommending that states ban these actions after investigations have concluded that
texting while driving can be the cause of deadly accidents. The NTSB chairwoman stated, "No email, no text, no update, no call is worth a human life."
A deadly texting while driving accident occurred August of 2010 in Missouri that resulted in 2 deaths and 39 injuries. A 19-year-old driver, texting, slammed his pickup truck into the back of a tractor truck, who slammed into a school bus, which slammed into another school bus. The 19-year-old driver and a 15-year-old student were both killed. 39 others were injured.
The NTSB says that it is illegal to text and drive if you are under 21 in Missouri, however the law is not strictly enforced.
Distracted Driving
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration defines distracted driving as "any activity that could divert a person's attention away from the primary task of driving."
There are 3 main types of distracted driving include:
- Manual - taking your hands off of the wheel
- Visual - removing your eye from the road
- Cognitive - taking your mind away from the road
The NHSTA reports that text messaging while driving is the most dangerous because it involves all three types of distractions.
Here are a few statistics that they provide:
- 5,474 people were killed and 448,000 people were injured in accidents related to driver distraction in 2009
- Text messaging creates an accident risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted
- Sending or receiving text messages takes a driver's eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. This is equivalent to driving the length of a football field at 55 mph, BLIND.
- For more statistics visit the NHTSA's Distraction.gov website.
Related Articles:
Even with recent attempts by lawmakers to
make Virginia’s roads safer, bad drivers are still going to find ways to cause
accidents. If you are unfortunate enough to be involved in a serious auto
accident, then Richard Serpe wants to help you. The Serpe Firm is a Virginia
based practice serving the Norfolk, Tidewater, Virginia Beach, and Richmond
areas.
Contact us today
and let us help you recover from the devastating effects
of an auto accident and
get you the compensation you deserve.