Distracted driving causes serious injuries and property damage. Highway and safety experts say a person’s reaction time is doubled and even tripled because of the driver not paying attention. If a driver doesn’t see the danger, then a collision is more likely.
Most of the recent focus has been on cell phone use, and cell phones cause many accidents, injuries and deaths every year. But the majority of distracted driving accidents come from other activity.
Distracted Driving Prohibited
Distracted driving causes around 4,000 deaths each year, and around 35 percent of these are from cell phone use. This means that around 2,500 deaths are caused by other types of distraction. The new anti-cell phone law also prohibits other distracted driving activities that had not been addressed.
Washington state passed a distracted driving law that focused on cell phones use, but it also addressed other types behavior that keep motorists’ eyes off the road. The law specifically addresses eating, shaving, putting on makeup and language is included to exclude other distractions as well. If caught, a driver could get a ticket of $99 for every offense.
Distracted Driving Accidents
If someone is driving while being distracted and hits another car or a person, the law allows the injured victim to sue the driver for injuries and other damages. To make a case for compensation, the victim doesn’t rely on the new distracted driving law, but had to show that the driver was negligent.
This means that the diver was engaged in conduct that a reasonably prudent person wouldn’t do, and the conduct resulted in the injury of the victim. Texting while driving, eating or putting on makeup are all actions that most juries will consider to be negligent.
