The Most Common Causes of Distracted Driving Accidents
With technological advancements increasing, distracted driving accidents are a mounting concern. Smartphones, in-car entertainment systems, and navigation devices divert attention from the road. Social media, texting, and streaming further multiply the issue by enticing drivers to look at their devices while behind the wheel. However, cognitive overload impairs reaction times and decision-making, escalating accident risks.
Your Hair Looks Fine: Don’t Primp and Drive
There are three key types of distractions that can occur while driving:
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- visual,
- manual, and
- cognitive.
Adjustments to hair and makeup, shaving, or other cosmetic efforts while driving can involve all three types.
Food and Beverages in a Vehicle: Recipe for Danger
Eating or drinking in a car may not be the most common cause of distracted driving accidents, but it’s still a bad idea.
Drivers typically take one or even both hands off the steering wheel while eating, which makes controlling the vehicle more difficult. Grabbing a quick meal while rushing around New York is quite common, but it can be incredibly dangerous to “eat and drive.”
The Sounds of Safety: Driving While Listening to Music
Few things compare to the simple joy of rolling down your windows, turning up some music, and going for a drive in the evening. The feeling of wind in your hair while you listen to the music playing is a great way to unwind after a long day.
It’s easy, however, to get lost in thought while singing along. Driving in New York can be both fun and treacherous, but music can provide distractions that create even greater dangers.
Cell Phones and Driving: A Deadly Combination
Driving, at the best of times, is a demanding activity that requires eye-hand coordination, attentiveness, and split-second reactions to changing conditions.
In New York, trying to do all these things while texting is to invite disaster. Even talking using a hands-free device poses a distraction and can be very costly.
Greenpoint DUI Crash Proves Fatal for Passenger
A 26-year-old woman was killed in a New York car accident when the 2015 Honda Civic in which she was a passenger crashed into a tractor-trailer. The fatal truck accident occurred at 367 Vandervoort Avenue in Brooklyn. Officials say the 27-year-old driver of the Civic was speeding while under the influence of alcohol when he crashed into the side of the tractor-trailer. His passenger suffered fatal head trauma and died at Woodhull Hospital.
Study Finds Google Glass Doesn’t Make Driving Safer
Does Google Glass make texting while driving safer? Probably not, according to a recent study conducted at the University of Central Florida.
The study placed drivers in a driving simulator to test their ability to send messages using Google Glass, their own smartphones or an unfamiliar smartphone. During each test, drivers were asked to send text messages on the device they were given. As they texted, the simulator showed a car slamming on its brakes ahead of their own.
Heads-Up Display to Hit Shelves in 2015, but Concerns Remain
Cell phone use in vehicles is one of the biggest sources of distracted driving accidents, as many experienced New York car accident attorneys have seen. States have attempted to limit these risks by imposing restrictions on cell phone use in vehicles, and auto manufacturers have responded by integrating many popular smartphone features into in-vehicle displays.
Now, San Francisco-based tech company Navdy is launching a heads-up display (HUD) that offers another alternative. A HUD projects key visual information onto the windshield of the car, allowing drivers to access music, maps, and communications on their smartphones without taking their eyes off the road.
Understanding the Risk Factors of Distracted Driving
Despite recent attempts by New York and other states to curb distracted driving and to raise awareness of its risks, thousands of New Yorkers get behind the wheel every day in some form of distraction. Cell phone use while driving continues to be a primary source of distraction, and on average, nine people lose their lives nationwide every day due to distracted driving. Thousands more suffer severe injuries, requiring the assistance of dedicated New York distracted driving injury lawyers to help them protect their legal rights and to seek compensation for harms that could have been avoided.
A 2011 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 69 percent of drivers admitted to using their cell phone while driving, and that 31 percent of these drivers admitted to texting or emailing behind the wheel within the past 30 days.