Motorist in New Jersey Bicycle Accident was Texting While Driving
Police are saying that a motorist who struck and seriously injured a bicyclist in Medford on Monday, was texting at the time of the accident. If that wasn’t bad enough, the motorist Robert Sharrer was apparently texting someone about a drug deal at the time of the collision.
According to news reports, the bicyclist Lisa Granert was riding responsibly, following all traffic rules and wearing a reflective vest. Sharrer’s vehicle drifted on to the shoulder and stuck Granert’s bike. The cyclist was thrown to the ground, and suffered serious injuries. She is currently in a trauma unit, where her condition is reported to be stable. Just before the accident, other motorists on route 70, where the accident took place, reported seeing a motorist driving erratically. Investigators say that Sharrer was texting at the time of the crash, and the text had to do with a drug deal.
Earlier this week, I blogged about a new survey that showed that half of Americans between 12 and 17 years of age have seen their parents texting at the wheel. We are in serious danger of raising a generation of New Jersey motorists, who think texting while driving is not a big issue, and it’s definitely cause for concern. There have been several studies into the heightened risk of accidents when motorists are texting while driving. In fact, one study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute placed that risk at 23 times greater than in case of motorists not texting while driving.
Scott Grossman is a New Jersey personal injury lawyer, representing injured victims in Monmouth, Bergen, Passaic and Ocean Counties and across New Jersey.
This is not surprising, but is infuriating. Texting under such circumstances should be a felony-level crime, punishable by correspondingly lengthy prison terms. From the perspective of NY lawyer, which I am, it is a cold reminder that no state is taking the problem seriously enough. Although NY recently passed its own "anti-texting" law, it is clearly not a serious attempt at addressing the problem, since drivers cannot be stopped for texting alone. It is only if they are stopped for something else, such as failing to wear a seatbelt, that the testing driver can be written up. Unfortunately, it will apparently take many more stories like this one before legislators get off their behinds and take real action.