Video created by Sophia Montemayor economics class for Dr. Castillo at Incarnate Word /St. Anthony High School
Texting While Driving IS Contributing To Thousands Of Crash Deaths.
Ample attention has been attached to drunk driving over the last several decades– and rightly so. It’s one of the leading causes of death and injury on PHOENIX roads, and even today is far too common. But a rising problem deserves a closer look as well – texting while driving. There has been an ever increasing focus on this problem in recent years as the number of accidents related to TEXTING OR DISTRACTED DRIVING increases at an alarming rate.
Texting has led to numerous traffic accidents, numerous serious injuries, and scores of fatalities and is now touted as being as dangerous as drunk driving.
- 3,328 people were killed in 2012 as a result of distracted driving (Texting was the highest category).
- Distracted driving was a factor in 10 percent of all fatal crashes in the country, and 17 percent of all crashes that resulted in injuries.Texting is now considered 26% of accidents today.
- Approximately 421,000 people are injured in an accident caused by distracted driving each year.
- 10 percent of drivers under the age of 20 who are involved in fatal accidents are distracted during the accident.(Hey the video quotes 26%)
- 27 percent of distracted drivers who are involved in fatal auto accidents are in their 20s.
- Texting while driving multiplies an accident 23 times more likely.
Those are huge numbers, and depicts just how serious this problem really is. In fact, it’s so serious that several states it is illegal for anyone operating a motor vehicle to text while driving. Most motorists in Arizona text while driving. DO You Text and Drive? And when you factor in that today’s smartphones make it easy to send and receive emails while driving, distracted driving becomes even more serious of a problem.
So what should you do if you’re involved in an accident that you believe was related to the other party texting? In reality, it’s often very difficult to prove that texting was a factor. Only in a few cases have attorneys been able to access mobile phone accounts of drivers, and it’s not something that motorists will usually give up willingly.
Instead, most attorneys will take a look at other factors that the texting led to. Things like unsafe speeds, failure to obey signage or traffic signals, crossing the center line, and other similar issues are normally linked to texting while driving and will be enough in many instances to show that the driver was negligent or reckless in their operation of the motor vehicle. It’s time to stop texting and driving. Protect your children and have watch this video. Protect your spuse and have them watch this video. Protect your family and have them watch this video. Have a family vote and vote never to text and drive ever.
