Drivers who are on the road don’t need to do anything other than drive. When they become distracted, innocent people can suffer harm in serious wrecks. There are many things that can take a motorist’s focus off the road, but they must resist this temptation.
The thing that makes these crashes so upsetting is that they could have been avoided if the person operating the vehicle made a conscious decision to pay attention to driving.
The decision to do other things is what leads to people being placed in risky situations.
Types of distractions
There are three types of distractions that drivers commonly experience.
- Cognitive distractions: Things that take your mind away from driving tasks.
- Visual distractions: Things that take your eyes away from the road.
- Manual distractions: Things that require you to take your hands off of the steering wheel.
While these are all distinct areas, they usually occur together. For example, answering a text on your cellphone requires that you look at the phone, use your fingers to text and think about what you are going to say. That is all three types of distraction all rolled into one activity.
Length of distractions
Some people think that short distractions aren’t a big deal. Consider this: It only takes five seconds for a car going 55 miles per hour to travel the length of a regulation football field. This is also the time it takes to send or receive a text message. In that amount of time and distance, there are a lot of accidents that can occur, especially on a congested roadway. The potential issues are even greater if you are on a road that has a higher speed limit, such as 65 or 70 miles per hour.
When accidents happen
Victims of distracted driving crashes may need medical care and could have a lengthy recovery time. They can choose to seek compensation from the distracted driver. This should include money for damages that include medical bills, lost wages and other financial impacts of the wreck.
In order to protect your rights, be sure that you don’t accept responsibility for the crash in any manner. This includes saying you are sorry it happened. Finally, remember that you only have a limited time to take legal action, so get things moving quickly.
