Car Accidents Caused by Cell Phone Use
Feb 12th, 2009 by Legal Staff
California recently passed a ban on the use of cell phones while driving. In Earlier this year, text-messaging was also banned. These additions and changes to the law come at a time where it is becoming more clear that the use of cell phone (whether texting or just talking) is a major distraction and a cause of many car accidents.
We all are aware of the annoyance of being stuck behind a driver using a cell phone. Driving in the left lane, all of a sudden we run into a person in front of us driving at 45 miles per hour and wonder, what is this person doing? We pass them only to discover that he/she is busy talking on a cell phone. No surprise here. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over 1 million U.S. drivers are speaking on cell phones at any given time. In addition, a 2007 survey conducted by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. revealed that out of 1,200 drivers, 73% talk on cell phones while driving.
Although surprisingly enough there are no statistics of accidents caused by cell phone usage, its danger has warranted dozens of countries and several states to outlaw in-vehicle handheld usage. California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah, and Washington, DC have all enacted laws banning the use of handheld cell phones. This is a cautionary move, and a good one, because we have all experienced the near-collisions with drivers who are speaking on cell phones.
However, there is a controversy over whether DWW—or driving while yakking—is truly hazardous. Proponents of wireless cell phones say that speaking on a cell phone is as equal a distraction as talking to your kids in the back seat or eating and driving. They argue that laws prohibiting cell phones are punishing the technology not the behavior.
Studies contradict this group’s thesis. A 2005 study of Australian drivers revealed that cell phone users were four times as prone to getting into a car accident as non-users. A 1997 Canadian study also connected cell phone usage with likelihood of accident.
In light of these dangers, hands-free have been utilized by drivers. Inventions like the Bluetooth, which allows you to have the phone anywhere in the car and plays over your speakers, in-car communication systems, and head sets are now utilized in compliance with laws. However, even these devices do not reduce the dangers of cell phone usage. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there is enough information to infer that even though hands-free phones remove the physical distraction of handling a cell phone, it does not eliminate the cognitive distraction. That is, you can be so emotionally involved in the telephone call that your brain will not be able to react quickly enough to hazardous conditions on the road. Your conversation exacts greater concentration which shifts your eyes and concentration from the road.
With increased cell phone usage by drivers on the job, the issue of employer and manufacturer liability also looms. Despite the fact that only a few high-profile cases have reached court, employers worry that they may be held liable for collisions initiated by their employees who are driving and carrying on business on their cell phones. Under what is called the doctrine of vicarious responsibility, employers may be held liable for the negligent acts of employees carried out while on the job. They may also be held accountable if they fail to institute a safety policy for cell phones.
