Use of cell phones behind the wheel is a growing concern

A previous post on this blog talked about how difficult it is for so many Louisiana residents to put down their phones and focus on their driving. As this post reported, even in the face of warnings and stepped-up law enforcement efforts, almost half of all drivers continued to text and drive, at least on occasion.

Another recent study suggests that using cell phones behind the wheel is growing in popularity, even though by now, it is common public knowledge that texting and driving, or any distracted driving for that matter, can cause serious car accidents.

These car accidents can, and often do, leave innocent victims suffering from catastrophic or even debilitating injuries, assuming of course that the victim survives the accident at all.

Specifically, after studying 1.8 million drivers over the course of 4.5 billion miles driven, the authors of the study concluded that, to this point in 2019, the rate of distracted driving has increased by 10 percent. This trend was universal across the United States, at least in those cities and states in which the authors analyzed motorists’ driving habits.

The study also included some other disturbing information about smartphones and driving. With the rise of the iGeneration has come the phenomenon of the phone addict, that is, a person who just cannot seem to put down his smartphone no matter what is going on around him.

For purposes of this study, a phone addict was willing to use her phone while behind the wheel at least 10 percent of the time. The study concluded that, for a whopping 28 percent of the time, phone addicts did not have their eyes, or their minds, on the road while driving.

The ongoing epidemic of distracted driving shows no signs of slowing down. Therefore, residents of Baton Rouge who have been victims in car accidents should remember that if it turns out the other driver was distracted, which is a real possibility, legal options may be available.