According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) every two minutes a person is injured in a drunk driving crash. This amounts to roughly 2000 people a day, or about 263,000 people a year. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf. While an incredibly high statistic, the injuries from drunk driving pale in comparison to those injured from distracted driving incidents.
According to NHTSA’s latest statistical year, every 75 seconds, someone is injured in a distracted driving crash. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812012.pdf. That is 421,000 people a year. That’s more people than the entire populations of Albany, Colonie, Schenectady, Troy, Clifton Park, Guilderland, Bethlehem, and Saratoga combined.
The main culprit of distracted driving is texting and cell phone use. On average, a person looks away from the road for 5 seconds when they are sending a text message. When traveling 55mph, that’s enough for a car to travel the length of a football field. Young people are also the most susceptible to distracted driving related accidents. According to NHTSA, drivers in their 20’s make up 27% of distracted drivers in fatal crashes.
In the past, we have published blogs about the dangers of distracted driving. This coming month is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. At LaMarche Safranko Law we will be publishing a series of blogs to help bring awareness to the epidemic that is distracted driving, as well as challenging others to put their phones down while driving.
So stay tuned this month for more blogs and tips on how to be safer on the roads.
