Straight Talk Law Blog: Why Distracted Driving Laws May Not Be Working By Seattle Personal Injury Lawyer Jason Epstein

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If you’ve had a chance to check out my new article, “The Deadly Toll of Car Accidents Caused by Texting and Driving,” you’ll find out the following frightening facts:

Over 16,000 wrongful deaths from 2002 -2007 were directly caused by texting and driving
The percentage of distracted driving deaths increased from 11% in 1999 to 16% in 2008
Distracted driving laws are actually causing more car accidents in some areas

That last factoid is probably the most disturbing. Many of us had hoped legislation aimed at preventing personal injury and wrongful death from texting and driving car accidents would have finally made some headway; as a personal injury attorney in Seattle Washington, I advocated strongly for these laws along with most other professionals in my field.

But the statistics are a bit misleading. In states that have banned texting and driving, 45% of the 18 to 24 year-olds, the group most likely to text and drive, say they would continue to do so despite the ban. In states without laws in place, 48% of that same group say they would text and drive. That means the laws are deterring some drivers from the dangerous practice.

That’s why I think the assumption by the president of Highway Loss Data Institute, the organization that did the study on legal bans of texting and driving, makes the most sense. He surmised that those drivers that were going to text and drive anyway, despite the laws, merely held their phones lower in the car so no one would see what they were doing. This made texting and driving much more dangerous – and caused more crashes.

Clearly, more sophisticated solutions are needed to this sophisticated problem – whether they’re legal or technological (software continues to be developed for phones that would discourage texting while behind the wheel). Texting and driving is a dangerous practice that continues to cause more and more car accidents – and doing nothing is definitely an unacceptable solution.

Visit my website at www.straighttalklaw.com , where you can order free books on personal injury lawyers, Washington auto and motorcycle accidents, auto insurance, and other valuable legal information, offered as a public service by myself and my law practice in Seattle, Washington. I also invite all teens to take the pledge against texting and driving at www.teensagainstdistracteddriving.com.