Mobile phone use by drivers has fostered a new car accident epidemic in San Francisco and throughout the United States. IPhones and Android phones now offer virtually limitless apps that permit users to play games, watch movies, surf the web, visit Facebook, read email, send text messages, and this barely scrapes the surface of potential smart phone capabilities. Unfortunately, this buffet of entertainment has become an enormous distraction to drivers. While distracted driving has long been regarded as a common cause of car accidents resulting in serious injury and even wrongful death, the pervasive influence of cell phone use amongst drivers has magnified the danger to drivers on Bay Area roads.
While handheld calls are prohibited in California, a number of studies suggest that these bans have not been effective in protecting drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. According to research conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 80 percent of all car accidents are caused by some form of distracted driving. Driver inattention also contributes to 65 percent of near misses. Handheld cell phone use impairs driving ability by slowing reaction time, decreasing awareness and increasing tension. When using a cell phone to engage in text messaging or to carry on a cell phone conversation, a driver’s eyes, hands and mind may all be averted from one’s driving.
There are more than 260 million people with cell phones with the number growing daily. It is estimated that as many as 6,000 people per year die in cell phone related accidents while another half million people are injured. California law prohibited all drivers from handheld cell phone use while driving effective July 1, 2008 but permitted hands free use by drivers over 18. While there have been a number of studies suggesting that hands free restrictions do not reduce the risk of cell phone related distracted driving accidents, a recent study by researchers at U.C. Berkeley indicates that ban may have saved a significant number of live by preventing serious car accidents.
A survey conduct in 2011 indicated that forty percent of drivers reported that they had elected to use their cell phone less while driving after the hands free ban. The recent U.C. Berkeley study is even more encouraging and reveals that there was a 22 percent decline in traffic related fatalities and 47 percent decline in handheld cell phone fatalities since the ban was implemented. This news is encouraging as prior studies conducted by University of Utah researchers suggested that hands free restrictions had no significant impact on distracted driving accident rates.
While the new study from U.C. Berkeley researchers is encouraging, the reality is that many people still use their cell phone for calling, texting, emailing, web surfing and many other purposes when driving. Although texting and calling on cell phones is prohibited in California, it may take a complete ban on all use of portable electronic devices while driving to more significantly reduce distracted driving accident rates. Because there are still many permissible uses for smart phones while driving, law enforcement can face serious challenges in determining whether a mobile phone is being used in an impermissible way.
If you are injured by a driver who is distracted by a cell phone and fails to stop before running a red light, blowing through a stop sign or rear-ending you, you may have a right to financial compensation for you injuries.
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If you were injured because of someone else’s negligence, and if you need a San Francisco car accident attorney, contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation. We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits. We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis, so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.
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