Florida Injury Lawyer Blog

We all know cell phones can be a hazard behind the wheel. And the government’s push to ban drivers from text messaging has reached a fevered pitch this year. But now the USA Today reports that the emphasis on texting could be taking the focus off the many other forms of distracted driving that commonly result in serious or fatal car accidents in Fort Myers and throughout the nation.

And, ironically, laws against texting and driving may be exacerbating the problem; our Fort Myers accident attorneys reported last week on our Florida Injury Lawyer Blog that some states have seen an increase in such accidents since banning text messaging. Drivers attempting to hide their activities, and thereby taking their eyes off the road for longer periods of time, could be responsible.

Meanwhile, the many other forms of distracted driving are rarely mentioned. “I don’t think we’ve made nearly as much progress in those other areas of distracted driving,” says Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported last month that 5,474 people were killed and 448,000 were injured in accidents caused by distracted driving. Only speeding and drunk driving are blamed for more deaths. And, while traffic fatalities have been in decline nationwide, the number of accidents blamed on distracted driving has climbed 25 percent in the last five years, from 4,472 in 2005 to 5,474 last year.

But nobody really knows how many of those accidents are caused by cell phone use or text messaging. The USA Today reported that the federal government blames cell phones for just 18 percent of the fatalities and 5 percent of the injuries associated with distracted driving. However, the Chicago Tribune reported that a study from the University of North Texas found that two-thirds of distracted driving accidents were blamed on text messaging. Researchers there contend that 16,141 people died in accidents caused by a text messaging driver between 2002 and 2007. Without text messaging, an average of 1,925 deaths a year would have been caused by distracted driving, compared to the 5,988 deaths in 2007 that were blamed on distracted driving once text messaging was included.

Part of the problem is that there is no nationwide system of reporting distracted driving accidents and many state and local governments do not report distractions or their causes at the scene of a crash.

Other common forms of distracted driving include eating, drinking, smoking, grooming, using in-car electronics, talking to passengers and external distractions. The NHTSA lists a wide range of common distractions in its most recent annual report, including:

-Adjusting climate controls or the radio.
-Reaching for something inside the vehicle.
-Distraction by outside person, object or event.
-Driver lost in thought.
-Reading, including maps.
-Looking at previous crash.
-Looking for an address, business, person or building.
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In a bizarre twist, a new study by the Highway Loss Data Institute found that laws aimed at preventing drivers from text messaging may actually be increasing the risk of distracted driving car accidents.

As our Fort Myers accident attorneys reported last week on our Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, Florida has been chastised for being one of a dwindling number of states without a law that prohibits drivers from text messaging while behind the wheel.

The report, which was sponsored by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, examined statistics in four states with text-messaging bans and compared them to four states that have not prohibited drivers from text messaging.

If there is one thing our Fort Myers accident attorneys could encourage you to do this week, it would be to sign up for the state’s emergency contact registry so that your loved ones can be notified in a timely fashion in the event that you are involved in a serious Fort Myers car accident or a traffic accident elsewhere in Florida.

This week — October 3 to October 9 — has been declared Register Your Emergency Contact Information Week, though motorists can register at anytime throughout the year. Your information can be accessed only by law enforcement officers looking to contact you in case of emergency. The program was introduced four years ago and we have blogged about it before here on our South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog.

“While the steady rise in ECI registrants is encouraging, it represents only a small portion of Florida’s driving population,” said DHSMV Executive Director Julie L. Jones. “Everyone with a Florida driver license or ID card should register their emergency contacts with us, either in an office or online. This will help our law enforcement officers identify who to notify when every second counts.”

You can click here to register your emergency contact information online.

Christine Olson learned of the tragic need for a statewide emergency contact resource when her daughter was killed in a Florida motorcycle accident in 2005. It took authorities more than six hours to notify the family. She worked with state lawmakers to establish and promote the database and has since founded “To Inform Families First” an organization dedicated to establishing up-to-date contact information in the event of an emergency. So far, more than 3 million motorists have registered and the database has been used more than 600,000 times.

You never know when you or a family member will be involved in a traffic accident. Last year, more than 640 traffic crashes a day were reported in Florida, injuring almost 200,000 people and claiming 2,563 lives, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Help law enforcement notify your family in an emergency and participate in this important effort.
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This week’s distracted driving summit in Washington, D.C. opened with an announcement of new regulations aimed at reducing accidents involving hazardous material, commercial trucks and bus and train operators, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported.

Our Fort Myers semi tractor-trailer accident lawyers and Cape Coral school bus accident attorneys continue to report on the dangers distracted driving pose to motorists. An estimated 6,000 motorists are killed each year and 500,000 are injured in accidents caused by distracted driving. Only drunk driving accidents and speed-related crashes claim more lives.

Still, Florida is one of a dwindling number of states that has not enacted a ban on text messaging while driving. Part of the summit’s focus will be on pushing states to comply with the stated wishes of the federal government to see a nationwide text-messaging ban enacted by passage of an anti-texting law in all 50 states.