Anyone who has ever gotten behind the wheel of a car knows how many distractions motorists may face during a single trip. A recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has attempted to quantify the distractions that challenge drivers by observing participants as they performed certain distracted behaviors.
Our distracted driving accident lawyers in Fort Worth know that drivers who are distracted are far more likely to be involved in a crash than those who are not, and the study concluded with similar results: driving while talking on a cellphone or to a passenger in the car affected the drivers abilities significantly.
Other behaviors that were examined included listening to the radio or an audio book, which were found to be mildly distracting. Driving while talking on a hands-free cellular device was found to be no safer than talking on a handheld device, which brings in to question the danger of simply conversing while driving.
The AAA study reflected that drivers need only take their mind off the road to decrease their ability to safely operate the vehicle. The act of focusing on the conversation, even with eyes ahead and both hands on the wheel, is going to defer your brain energy from driving safely to conversing coherently. You’ll face a moderate increase in the risk of a car accident as a result.
Finally, driving while using a program that allowed text-to-speech so that the motorist could text or email was considered to be the most dangerous of behaviors and to present an extreme risk because the driver experienced inattention blindness.
Motorists who experience inattention blindness do not realize that their behavior could be the cause of a serious accident, and that they could be pursued for compensation if the victim decides to file a lawsuit because of their negligence.
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