Sadly, hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of car accidents happen in Maryland every single day. These accidents can cause serious injury, chronic illness, permanent disability and even death. You should be aware that the cause of many of these accidents is distracted driving.
Forms of distracted driving
One of the most common causes of motor vehicle accidents is a driver who is not paying attention to the road or other drivers. Distracted driving can take many forms and have many causes. This includes:
• phone calls
• texting
• eating and drinking
• passengers
• advertisements
• smoking
• reaching for things in the car
• adjusting the temperature controls, radio, etc.
In general, a driver’s attention should be squarely on the road and other things that can present danger, such as other vehicles and pedestrians. It should not be on things peripheral to safely navigating through roadways and certainly not on things that can be saved for later, such as responding to a text message.
Driver cell phone use
Of these causes of distracted driver accidents, cell phone usage may be the most dangerous. Engaging in communication this way requires a lot of brain power, which can certainly steal the driver’s attention.
Authorities are aware of this and are developing new ways to understand the true scope of the problem better and to combat it. This is being done by implementing distracted driver accident prevention programs that implement cameras and artificial intelligence to automatically detect drivers using their cell phone and other smart devices while driving.
This new technology being implemented by law enforcement may help curb the problem of distracted driving in the future. As such, the number of crashes may decrease on the road and the serious injuries and deaths resulting from them.The post The dangers of cell phones and distracted driving first appeared on Rowe, Weinstein & Sohn, PLLC.
