Articles Tagged with distracted driving

Distracted driving is very dangerous and leads to numerous preventable accidents and deaths in Florida each year. In 2019, distracted driving resulted in 3,142 deaths nationwide. If you have been injured in Miami due to the negligence of a distracted driver, you may be able to pursue compensation for your losses. An experienced distracted driving accident attorney in Miami can help. 

What is Distracted Driving?

Distracted driving is defined as engaging in any activity while driving that would take your attention away from operating your vehicle. It only takes one second to get into a major accident when you allow yourself to get distracted while driving. There are three major types of driver distractions, which are:

After years of public awareness campaigns and enactment of numerous Florida laws prohibiting interaction with telecommunications devices, Miami drivers are well-aware of the dangers of using a cell phone behind the wheel. Specifically with regards to texting, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) points out that there are three areas that impact safe driving: 

  • Visual, where you take your eyes of the road and vehicle systems;
  • Manual, since your hands are not on the steering wheel where they belong; and,

You have probably seen it time and again – a driver on a busy road or highway looking down at his or her phone or staring intently at a GPS device instead of focusing on the road. The clarion calls to not text and drive appear to fall on deaf ears. In 2013, over 3,000 people were killed in car wrecks involving a distracted driver. In addition, over 420,000 people suffered serious injuries in distracted driving-related accidents, according to distraction.gov. Our team of Miami car accident lawyers find these statistics to be quite troubling.

On a bright note, some companies are taking action to combat distracted driving. For example, AT&T created advertisements for the “It Can Wait” campaign. Also, AAA released videos taken of distracted drivers causing serious wrecks.

Here is some shocking data – sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. If you are traveling at a speed of 55 miles per hour, that is the equivalent of driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed, according to CBS Miami. When you text and drive you are 23 times more likely to be in a car crash.

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