{"id":841,"date":"2018-08-14T16:22:24","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T16:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.harshlaw.com\/?p=841"},"modified":"2018-08-14T16:22:24","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T16:22:24","slug":"texting-driving-known-hazard-cant-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harshlaw.com\/texting-driving-known-hazard-cant-stop\/","title":{"rendered":"Texting and Driving is a Known Hazard — So Why Can’t We Stop?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Distracted driving causes accidents every day in the USA, and despite expensive campaigns and initiatives launched to promote awareness of the danger of texting while driving, we still do it. A recent\u00a0ZenDrive\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0revealed that drivers used smartphones on almost all trips in the car (about 88% of trips taken in the given period).\u00a0We know about the danger<\/a>\u2014so why do we still drive while texting, watching or reading on a phone? A few key reasons are listed below.<\/p>\n

More Young Drivers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As more and more freshly minted drivers hit the road, texting rates increase. A Harvard Business study revealed that more than half of teens have read or texted while driving in the last 30 days. These digital natives have always had phones and tech toys, so the increase in youthful drivers naturally leads to\u00a0more people behind the wheel with a phone in hand.<\/a><\/p>\n

Multitasking<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Technology allows us to do more than ever before \u2013 and multitasking is an essential part of today\u2019s busy lifestyle. According to Wired,\u00a0more and more of us are taking that multitasking to the extreme<\/a> and using a smartphone while driving. Online shopping, texting and even business meetings conducted over the phone all add up to big distractions for drivers.<\/p>\n

We Don\u2019t Know We are Doing it<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Could you be texting more than you think? A recent study revealed that most of us are simply so used to using a phone or device,\u00a0we don\u2019t even realize we\u2019re doing it.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The habit of using and referring to a phone could be so ingrained that we see it as an extension of ourselves and launch into a conversation, email or text without realizing what we are doing. This phenomenon happens most often when a driver is stopped in traffic or at a light and uses that time to just \u201ccheck one thing\u201d. They end up spending more time than expected \u2013 and driving becomes the secondary task.<\/p>\n

Awareness of the danger, a commitment to focusing on driving as the primary task and technology that allows for distraction free driving could help cut back on this growing risk. In the meantime, distracted driving can and does cause accidents daily.<\/p>\n

If you have been the victim of a distracted driver who simply\u00a0couldn\u2019t put down that phone \u2013 no matter what they were doing \u2013 we can help. Contact Harshbarger Law today if you have any questions and would like to discuss your incident with a legal professional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Distracted driving causes accidents every day in the USA, and despite expensive campaigns and initiatives launched to promote awareness of the danger of texting while driving, we still do it. A recent\u00a0ZenDrive\u00a0study\u00a0revealed that drivers used smartphones on almost all trips in the car (about 88% of trips taken in the given period).\u00a0We know about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,151,26],"tags":[154,132,155,156,133,157],"class_list":["post-841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements","category-car-accidents","category-personal-injuries","tag-cell-phones","tag-driving","tag-driving-hazards","tag-safe-driving","tag-texting","tag-wreckless-driving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harshlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harshlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harshlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harshlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harshlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harshlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harshlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harshlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harshlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harshlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}