How Can You Stop Texting While Driving?

In today’s day and age, most of us are glued to our phones. There have been many repercussions because of it. Our ability to communicate with others is reduced and we are not alert to our surroundings making us vulnerable to accidents. For all the convenience and good smartphones provide us they also are responsible for any negative outcomes. There have been studies that indicate there is an actual mental health repercussion from smartphone separation causing anxiety. 

It is easy to understand that when one is driving the temptation to use a smartphone is all-too present. Especially if your phone is giving you directions, looking down at it and then quickly checking and email or text is extremely enticing. However, looking at your smartphone when you drive is not only unwise, it is reckless and there is strong evidence to support this behavior is responsible for many car accidents across the country. If you cause an accident because of your distracted driving by looking at your phone you are going to be held liable for the damages to other parties.

Why Is Texting While Driving So Dangerous?

Texting takes up more of your cognitive abilities than you may think. It requires you to be distracted visually, manually, and cognitively. It doesn’t take but seconds to get yourself into a massive car accident. Statistics show that the average time you are not looking at the road is 5 seconds if you are instead looking at your phone during a text. If you are traveling at highway speeds of at least 55 mph, you will have covered the length of a football field in just those couple seconds.

It is known that drivers who text put themselves and their passengers at 23 times higher risk for an accident. Texting is a growing problem in the country and is estimated to be responsible for 25% of all car accidents. Because of the recognized problem that texting while driving has proven to be, many states have enacted laws to make it an illegal activity. In Phoenix and Tuscon, texting while driving is banned, but that is not the case for the rest of the state. If you are caught texting while driving in Phoenix you could be looking at upwards of a $250 fine.

Arizona isn’t alone with its more lenient state-wide laws. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association as of May 2016, Missouri, Montana, and Texas are also lax on this behavior too. This is interesting since the dangers of this activity are so well-known and documented. For instance, the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) reported that in 2015 there were close to 3,000 accidents due to distracted driving.

How Can You Stop Yourself From Texting While Driving?

There are a couple of proactive measures you can take to better reduce your risk for texting while you are behind the wheel, and these include:

• Make sure your phone is out of reach when you are in the car so you cannot get to it.
• Turn all phone notifications off so you are not tempted to look and see who emailed or texted you.
• Install a free app that discourages texting while driving.
• If you must text, either pull over to a safe location to do so or give a passenger in your vehicle the ability to do so.

The talented and resourceful Phoenix car accident attorneys at ELG will provide you with effective legal representation if you were injured in an accident by a distracted driver. Our team of Arizona serious injury attorneys has many years representing victims’ rights in the state of Arizona.

Contact ELG at 623-562-3838 to set up a free consultation at either of our locations in Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona. We look forward to discussing your accident situation with you.