New Jersey Accident and Injury Law Blog : New Jersey Injury Lawyer & Attorney : The Grossman Law Firm : Serving Monmouth County, Bergen County

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced plans to hold a summit of experts in September to discuss distracted driving and the risk of accidents. The summit will include transportation officials, safety advocates, law enforcement agencies as well as lawmakers, and will discuss the effects of distracted drivers on traffic safety, as well as measures to deal with the problem. Not surprisingly, cell phone use and text messaging while driving are expected to be the focus of the summit.

The summit plans come soon after several reports linking automobile accidents to cell phone use hit the news. Like I discussed earlier, the New York Times had revealed last month  that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for at least 5 years, had access to data that would have placed pressure on states to pass stronger cell phone safety laws, but failed to make these public.  Soon after, that came a study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which showed that text messaging while driving increased the risk of an accident by up to 23 times. Whether you believe those numbers are not, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that sending text messages when you drive is foolish driving behavior.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the summit is expected to focus on ways to enforce stricter laws banning cell phones behind the wheel. New Jersey does have a ban on handheld devices behind the wheel, but we have seen mixed results with the ban. While cell phone use by New Jersey motorists dropped in the first few months after the ban was imposed, those numbers have picked up since then. That's a troubling fact, and the time is right for New Jersey's legislators to look into why the ban is not working as effectively as it was meant to.

Meanwhile, Bergen County car accident lawyers will be watching the September summit very closely to see if it comes up with any proposals that could add more bite to our cell phone safety laws.

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According to a New York Times report, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2003 decided to withhold information and evidence that Americans were being placed at high risks of accidents because of the growing use of cell phones behind the wheel.

Documents that were buried years ago have now surfaced thanks to the efforts of two public interest groups, and the NYT has published those documents on its website. The research was apparently withheld because, according to the former NHTSA chief, Congress members didn’t want the agency to pressure states for changes in their driving laws. At the time, the researchers have asked for a more intensive study about the dangers of cell phone use by motorists, but the agency stonewalled any such plans because of political concerns. It’s just another example of the manner in which our safety agencies and law makers fail to do what's right for the American motorist.

The researchers, it seems, had wanted to warn states that a ban on handheld devices would do nothing to eliminate the risk of accidents. Earlier this year, I had discussed how the National Council on Safety had called for a ban on cell phone use by all drivers. That included handheld as well as hands free devices.

Currently, only a handful of states including New Jersey have laws banning handheld cell phones for all drivers. No states ban cell phone use of all kinds behind the wheel. However, teen motorists in many states are banned from using cell phones while driving. With cell phone use being traced to not just automobile accidents, but also trucking and train accidents, it’s clear that we need to revise our approach to handling the problem.

• In Boston earlier this year, a trolley operator texting on his cell phone caused an accident that injured dozens of people.
• Last year, a train accident in California that killed 25 people was traced to operators on both trains involved sending text messages on their phones.
• Motorists using their cell phones are up to 4 times more likely to be involved in an accident than those who are not using their phones.
• Studies have shown that use of a cell phone while driving causes a level of impairment that is equal to that caused by a blood alcohol level of .08 percent.

With all those facts and figures at our disposal, I don’t believe we should be dragging our feet on what is such an essential public safety issue. As a Passaic County personal injury lawyer, I don’t believe that a ban on cell phones behind the wheel will be a highly popular measure, but I do believe that it would be a firm step towards increasing the safety of our motorists.

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Motorists in New Jersey are most likely to die in an accident between the hours of 5 and 6 pm on a warm Saturday in August, if you go by nationwide statistics by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This report in Forbes, offers a startling look into how people are dying in accidents in America. For instance, Saturday is the most dangerous day of the week to be out and about, and August the most dangerous month of the year. However, the worst time you could be on the road is on the Fourth of July. In 2007, the accident death toll on this one day alone touched 926. Not surprisingly, the country's biggest traveling holiday, Thanksgiving, is also its most dangerous weekend to be on the roads. At least 32 percent of those who died in accidents were speeding at the time of the crash, and 55 percent of them were not wearing seatbelts at the time.

In Monmouth County we have very busy roads and highways including Route 9, the Garden State Parkway, and the NJ turnpike.  In Bergen County we have of course route 17, route 4, route 80 and route 46 to name a few of the major traveled roadways. 

So much for the bad news. So, is there any time you are safe on the road? Sure - if you restrict all your driving to Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and only get behind the wheel between 4 and 5 am. If that's not practical, there are other ways that you can to try to ensure that you don't end up as part of accident statistics, and they are all pretty simple. 

• Buckle up. Every time.
• Switch off the cell phone.
• Stay within speed limits.
• Never, but never, drink and drive.

Thankfully, the report shows that an overwhelming number of accidents – close to 95 percent - occur because of human error, and not because of mechanical malfunction. It just proves what Monmouth County car accident lawyers knew all along – that accidents can be prevented if all motorists focus their attention on the road, and the other motorists who might be around them.

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