Most of us in Oneida realize that distracted driving is a problem. We have seen the commercials, heard the news reports and seen celebrities plead with us not to text while driving and, fortunately, most of us have listened. Unfortunately, those that haven’t are putting people at serious risk of injury and death. Though New York has outlawed texting while driving, there are many accidents that likely can be linked to distracted driving.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nine people will die every day from distracted driving. Moreover, 1,060 people will be hurt. These statistics are nationwide and they aren’t just citing texting behind the wheel, but that doesn’t make the figures any less staggering. In 2011 alone, 3,331 people died in distracted driving accidents.
Although some of the people killed in these accidents are the distracted drivers themselves, there are a number of people who were just innocent victims in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is hardly consolation to the families, however, and many of the surviving relatives want to hold distracted drivers responsible via wrongful death lawsuits. Not only does a lawsuit give the clear message that distracted driving is wrong, but it also helps compensate the families for the financial burden that comes along with a wrongful death.
Not only did the CDC look at data collected from American distracted driving crashes, they also compared American data sets to those in Europe. Needless to say, Americans were more likely to be driving while distracted.
Source: The Washington Post, “Distracted driving: 9 die, 1,060 hurt each day, CDC says,” Ashley Halsey III, Feb. 24, 2014
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