Whether you are riding in a vehicle, walking or riding a bike, distracted drivers are a serious threat. Every year, these accidents claim many lives and cause even more people to suffer devastating injuries that alter the course of their lives. Whether you have to miss work, cannot pay medical expenses or struggle with unmanageable pain, traffic accident injuries can impact you in many ways.
Although many drivers realize that using a phone behind the wheel is very distracting, there are many other ways in which distracted driving occurs.
Eating, passengers and other distracted driving risks
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines various examples of distracted driving. For example, some drivers lose focus because of other passengers in the vehicle, whether they become distracted during a conversation or the passenger behaves erratically and it causes the driver to lose focus. Eating food and drinking is often very distracting, and some drivers do not pay attention to the road because they try to read a map, use a GPS, adjust the volume or apply makeup.
Data on distracted driving crashes
During the course of 2018, distracted driving accidents resulted in 400,000 people sustaining injuries, according to estimates. Moreover, the CDC states that these crashes claimed more than 2,800 lives. Statistics show that distracted driving is especially concerning with respect to teen drivers and those in their twenties.
If a distracted driver caused a serious accident, you need to carefully examine all of your options. Careless drivers who cause devastating collisions because of distracted driving have to answer for the consequences of the crash.