Distracted Driving

 Posted on August 03, 2013 in Personal Injury

The National Highway and Traffic Association recently reported the release of distracted driving guidelines by Ray LaHood, the U.S. Transportation Secretary. The guidelines encourage drivers to limit using the distractions in their vehicles like phones, iPods and GPSs. Along with suggesting to drivers that limit the time that their eyes are off the road to only two seconds, the guidelines also suggest disabling distractions unless the car is in park. These distractions include:

• Any type of videos like video chat or any video entertainment
• Displays of any text, such as text messages, social media apps and other web pages
• Manual text entry for messaging and internet

These suggestions are for electronic devices that are installed in vehicles at the time of manufacturing. The Department's NHTSA included a wide range of recommendations to keep drivers' eyes on the road and hands on the wheel. "Distracted driving is a deadly epidemic that has devastating consequences on our nation's roadways. These guidelines recognize that today's drivers appreciate technology, while providing automakers with a way to balance the innovation consumers want with the safety we all need," said Secretary LaHood. The secretary is confident that these guidelines will help to save lives on the roads along with good education and enforcement. The new recommendations from NHTSA also align with the recent study, The Impact of Hand-Held and Hands-Free Cell Phone Use on Driving Performance and Safety Critical Event Risk. The study found that the chance of getting into a crash was increased by three times due to visual-manual tasks related to portable devices. It was also found that the longest time spent with the driver's eyes off the road was caused by dialing, browsing and text messaging. Texting resulted in an average of 23.3 seconds of the driver's eyes not on the road. This doubled the likelihood of getting in a crash, while activities such as dialing and looking for a contact to call increased the chance of a crash by three times. If you have been injured in a car accident, perhaps due to you or another driver using their cell phone or being distracted in some other way, contact a DuPage County accident attorney. Attorneys at Mevorah & Giglio Law Offices in Illinois will help you in your accident case in court today.