Distracted driving is always dangerous and can result in serious car accidents and damages to victims. Personal injury protections can help victims with the damages they suffer in a distracted driving-related car accident but it helps to be familiar with why distracted driving is so dangerous.
There are generally three different types of distracted driving including cognitive, visual and manual. Cognitive distracted driving removes the driver’s attention and focus from the roadway. In addition, visual distracted driving removes the driver’s eyes from the roadway and manual distracted driving removes their hands from the steering wheel. All three forms of distracted driving combine when a driver is texting while driving making it a particularly dangerous form of distracted driving. There are other forms of distracted driving as well.
Each day in the United States, 9 victims are killed and another 1,000 victims are injured in distracted driving-related car accidents. As an example of the seriousness of distracted driving, when a distracted driver is texting while driving, they remove their eyes from the roadway for 5 seconds on average which is equivalent, when driving at 55 miles per hour, to driving the length of a football field while blind folded. When a driver is driving while distracted, they are endangering everyone on the roadways.
Personal injury legal options can help hold these dangerous drivers accountable and can also help injured victims with their physical, financial and emotional damages which the negligent driver may be responsible for. It is important for victims of distracted drivers to be familiar with the legal protections available to them when harmed.