Dallas Distracted Driving Accident Attorney

According to data from the Texas Department of Transportation, we know that there were nearly 250,000 injuries and 3,639 fatalities due to traffic crashes during the latest reporting year across the state. Looking more closely at Dallas specifically, we can see that there were around 32,000 traffic accidents during that same year.

According to data from the Texas DOT, we know that 398 of the fatalities during the latest year were due to distracted driving crashes. Distracted driving takes many forms, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes distracted driving behavior in three ways:

• Visual: taking your eyes off the road
• Manual: taking your hands off the wheel
• Cognitive: taking your mind off of driving

What does this driving behavior look like? Ask yourself if you have ever seen drivers in and around the Dallas area doing the following on the roadway:

• Talking on their phone
• Texting while operating the vehicle
• Staring at their phone screens
• Reading emails
• Adjusting a GPS device
• Adjusting the radio
• Eating while driving
• Talking to others in the vehicle
• Reaching for objects in the vehicle
• Applying makeup or looking in the mirror

Any action that takes a driver’s eyes and focuses off of the roadway is dangerous and can cause serious harm to other drivers and passengers, bicyclists, in pedestrians. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 3,000 people were killed by distracted driving during the latest reporting year in the US.

Despite numerous public safety warnings, new laws in place to curb this behavior, and increased awareness of how dangerous distracted driving is, it seems like these incidents continue to occur at high rates. Drivers who operate recklessly should be held accountable for their actions behind the wheel.