Straight Talk Law: Seattle, Washington Personal Injury Lawyer Jason Epstein on “Surfing While Driving”

In recent years, distracted driving has become more and more of a national – even international – issue. Thousands of car accidents are caused every year by motorists who text while driving – many resulting in wrongful death and personal injury.

Now, a new survey brings a whole new level of distracted driving danger. State Farm Insurance polled 912 drivers last November – and found that 19% of them surfed the internet while they were driving. Yes, that’s almost one out of every five drivers who are checking sports scores, entertainment news or whatever else Google can find for them…while they’re behind the wheel.

The other bad news is that most of the drivers polled were in their 30’s. Undoubtedly, younger drivers, who also tend to text and drive more than older drivers, engage in this kind of behavior more often.

No doubt the increasing use of Smartphones that enable internet access is behind these numbers. Because of everything these new devices can do, there are plenty of extra temptations that can cause more and more distracted driving incidents.

And that’s why more and more distracted driving car accidents are happening every year. In 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 5474 wrongful deaths and 448,000 cases of personal injury resulted from distracted driving.

Many states have led the way in passing legislation against the practice of texting and driving, including Washington. 30 states now prohibit the practice for all drivers while 8 more only have a ban in place for novice drivers.

Now, however, there seems to be a backlash brewing in the remaining states. In South Dakota, for example, a bill to ban texting and driving recently failed to move forward past a legislative panel. Last year, a different anti-distracted driving bill failed to pass through the state legislature. And in Idaho, a bill has actually been proposed to allow texting and driving – as long as the driver is not distracted when he or she is doing it!

One 38 year-old driver who admits to surfing the web says he knows it isn’t “the smartest thing in the world, but I do it anyway.” That’s now how 16 year-old Dakota Woodward of Crestview, Florida feels. He learned distracted driving wasn’t the smartest thing in the world the hard way – he was almost involved in a car accident because he was updating his Facebook status while driving.

“I don’t look at my phone anymore,” he told USA Today. “It’s more important to keep my eyes on the road and my hands on the wheel than to text somebody back, or update my status, or see what somebody else is doing on Facebook. It scared me so much, I don’t text and drive or Facebook and drive anymore, or do anything with my phone.”

For more free “Straight Talk Law” information, please visit the website of Seattle, Washington Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Attorney Jason Epstein at www.straighttalklaw.com, where you can order free books on personal injury lawyers, Washington auto accidents, auto insurance, and other valuable legal information, offered as a public service by Mr. Epstein’s law practice in Seattle, Washington. Mr. Epstein also invites teen drivers to take the pledge to not text and drive at his website, www.TeensAgainstDistractedDriving.com.