Have you ever been driving along, paying careful attention to your responsibilities as a motorist, only to suddenly have to swerve or brake to avoid a vehicle on a collision course with your car? Odds are pretty high that the negligent driver was on their cellphone, and that they were a teenager. Situations like this are unfortunately not rare, but just how commonplace are they? The American Automobile Association (AAA) wanted to find out to get to – and correct – the root of the problem.
Utilizing dashboard cameras that were voluntarily installed in vehicles primarily operated by teenage drivers across the country, AAA was able to access close to 7,000 videos of their behavior behind the wheel. The system would also timestamp footage surrounding a car accident or a hard-braking incident for later analysis. The data gathered was staggering.
Out of the 1,700 videos that caught a collision on camera, roughly 60% of them directly involved a serious form of distraction. The biggest culprit? Cellphone use, followed closely by conversing with passengers in their car. It should also be noted that every moment of cellphone use did not always cause an accident, so the danger created is actually greater than indicated.
Solutions to a Serious Issue
How can teenage drivers allow themselves to be so frequently distracted when operating a vehicle? The answer may lie in a lack of understanding for the fundamental rules of the road. Safety organizations like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are suggesting that states do not have strict enough driver’s license examinations in place. A handful of states have also limited the number of passengers teenage drivers may have in their car to only one.
While we await changes that can curb this growing concern, the only way to receive compensation for an injury caused by a distracted teenage driver might be to seek legal recourse through civil litigation. If you need legal representation you can trust for your case, contact our Wichita car accident attorneys from Hutton & Hutton Law Firm, LLC. Using a free case evaluation, we can determine your best course of legal action at no cost to you. Call (316) 688-1166 today for more information.