Philadelphia Distracted Driving Accident Lawyer

Most Common Causes Of Distraction For Drivers In Philadelphia, PA

On the road, there are endless outside sources that can catch a driver’s eye and take it off the road. Animals, objects, smoke in the distance, car accidents on the side of the road, flashing lights from smart phones, and the list goes on. There are, however, more common distractions that one should try to avoid as much as possible. These distractions include:

• Being Lost in Thought
• Cell Phone Usage
• Staring at Outside Sources
• Attention Demanding Occupants
• Eating or Drinking
• Adjusting a Variety of Operation and Comfort Controls

Most distracted driving can be categorized and each type of distraction results in different parts of a driver being affected such as eyes on the road, hands on the wheel, head pointing straight ahead, etc. The three types of distracted driving include:

• Manual Distraction – moving hands away from the wheel, stick, or other important operational features that allow you to maintain safe driving behavior
• Visual Distraction – anything in your line of vision that takes your eyes away from the road
• Cognitive Distraction – attention is focused elsewhere, distracting thoughts, talkative passengers, staring at self in the mirror, etc.

Smartphones Result in Statistical Spike in the Number of Motor Vehicle Accidents

Of all the distracted driving culprits out there, the most common one of our newer generations is the use of smartphones. There is a slowly growing crisis going on involving smartphone usage and distracted driving accidents. In fact, people are 23x more likely to get into an accident when using their cell. There are so many features on a phone to distract a driver including GPS, text, phone calls, email, video and camera options, using it as a mirror, selecting music, social apps, and so much more. Constant pinging of notifications and how much people are glued to their screens is raising the death toll.

• The amount of people distracted in this manner is in the hundreds of thousands and climbing all the time It was discovered that at any given moment in time, over 660,000 people are using a smartphone while behind the wheel. In just 5 seconds at 55 MPH (which is well under what people usually go on a highway), a car can travel the full length of a football field. A lot can happen in those five seconds that can lead to catastrophic accidents.

There are now very serious consequences for being caught using a phone while driving to help with this epidemic. Handheld cell phones are now banned for all drivers across the country.

Penalties for cellphone category distracted driving are as follows:

• First offense involves a $200 to $400 fine.
• Second offense (committed within 10 years of first) – $400 to $600 fine.
• Third or subsequent offenses (committed within 10 years of first) – $600 to $800 fine plus possibility one’s driver’s license can be suspended for up to three months