A lot of people think that talking on their cell phones or using an electronic device of some kind while driving is simply no big deal. The evidence that they do can be seen in how muchthey do it. Estimates say that right now, as you read this, 660,000 drivers are driving distractedly in this way in America. The consequences of this behavior can be terribly serious.
How serious? In 2013 alone, distracted driving killed 3,154 people and injured another 424,000. That?s a lot of calls for ambulances, motorcycle accident attorneys, legal help, and undertakers. The cost in terms of lives, not to mention monetary costs, is huge. These are the consequences of doing any other task that requires both sight and hands, such as dialing or texting, while also trying to drive. Attempting to do so increases your risk of a crash by three times.
Those deaths due to distracted driving are just one part of the casualties on America?s roads. In 2013, 21,132 people died in passenger vehicle crashes, and 2.05 million were injured. Another huge issue in these statistics is drunk driving. Every two minutes in the United States, a person is injured in a crash that involves a drunk driver. Every two minutes, more people are hurt, more people are calling motorcycle accident attorneys and personal injury lawyers, and more people are dying.
An estimated 300,000 drunks go driving every day in America, but less than 4,000 ever get arrested. In fact, before a drunk gets arrested for this behavior, he or she has likely done it 80 times already. These are dismal statistics, and they result in truck accidents, car accidents, and motorcycle accidents every day.
You can minimize your likelihood of being involved in a distracted driving or drunk driving incident by not driving distracted or drunk yourself. This will also ensure you?ll never need a law firm to defend you from having done so. But it doesn?t guarantee you?ll never need a personal injury lawyer, because you cannot control the behavior of others. With the police unable to stop the problem of drunk driving, in fact, maybe the best way to deter anyone from doing it is the threat of an enormous personal injury lawsuit.
There is one more area where you can minimize your risk of being involved in a terrible accident, though: consider your motorcycle. In 2013, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that 4,668 people died in motorcycle accidents and 88,000 were injured. While those statistics are down a bit from the year before, you are still 26 times more likely to die in a crash than someone in a car, and five times more likely to be injured.
For whatever reason, people simply cannot see motorcycles easily. They can fall into the blind spots of cars and trucks with greater ease than cars and larger vehicles, and because there are not as many on the road, drivers are not looking for them and expecting to see them. Motorcycles are also less safe to drive because of road conditions, like potholes or ice.
This doesn?t mean that motorcycles are always to blame, of course. The most common cause of an accident involving a motorcycle is a larger vehicle?s failure to yield the right of way and pay attention. This is not just a matter of seeing the motorcycle, but also of obeying all traffic lights and regulations. Increasing Americans? general awareness of motorcycles has been hard, and, as with drunk driving, getting motorcycle accident attorneys involved after serious accidents is one way to make everyone wake up and pay attention.
The work of the best motorcycle accident attorneys in the world, though, cannot reverse the paralysis or brain injuries you risk being thrown from a motorcycle at speed. Choosing to ride a motorcycle is risky, and you should only do it aware of the risks and determined to be the safest driver you possible can.
Accidents are serious, and in some ways America?s roads are a mess. Make wise decisions and about what and where you drive. If you?re injured, seek help from an auto accident attorney to find out what you should do next. And, above all else, drive safe.