You might think, after years of studies and warnings about how dangerous and unnecessary driving while distracted is, Americans would have gotten the message. But research suggests that distracted driving is not going away. If anything, it’s happening more than ever.
Report says most drives include distractions
A report by Cambridge Mobile Telemetrics, a company that supplies telemetric data used by insurance companies to monitor their customers’ driving habits, indicates that American drivers used their smartphones or other devices during 58 percent of trips in 2022, up significantly since 2020. And those interactions are lasting longer: two minutes and 12 seconds on average in ’22, or 25 seconds longer average phone interactions than just two years prior.
Even a few seconds of distraction is enough to cause a horrible car accident. So the fact that drivers across the Atlanta metro area and the rest of the country are using their phones for minutes at a time is very troubling. It is no surprise that deaths and injuries in distracted driving crashes are still a huge safety problem in the U.S., and a contributor to the fact that 42,915 people were killed in collisions in 2021 — the deadliest year on the roads since 2005.
Why is distracted driving so popular?
It’s safe to say that most American motorists have heard the warnings experts and politicians have given us about distracted driving. So why are drivers distracting themselves more often, not less? It could be that many chronically distracted drivers believe the threat is exaggerated or that they are the exception and distractions don’t impair their safe driving skills. Finally, some drivers might be so addicted to their phones that it is worth the danger to them.
The truth is, distracted driving is a reckless and selfish decision that can kill and disable innocent people. After getting hit by a distracted driver, you could be left with painful, debilitating injuries that rob you of your independence and quality of life. That is what a personal injury lawsuit is meant to compensate you for.