Want to Avoid Auto Accidents in Charlotte? Get Off That Cell Phone!
If you were recently hurt – you know someone who was hurt – in an auto accident in Charlotte, you want to do everything possible to protect yourself and your loved ones on the roads in the future. What exactly does that entail? What must you “give up” to maximize your safety? What should you start doing that you haven’t been doing?
Those questions are seemingly simple, but they harbor a dastardly amount of complexity. After all, the science undergirding our safety recommendations is still in flux, and even the auto safety experts still vigorously debate the fundamentals. Beyond some obvious pieces of wisdom — such as “wear your safety belt” if you’re driving a car or “wear your helmet” if you’re a motorcycle rider — the top minds in automotive safety diverge more substantially than you may realize.
One thing you can do: Stop using your cell phone while driving.
Most people who’ve paid attention to research into North Carolina auto safety appreciate that cell phones and driving don’t mix. When you’re distracted by your cell phone, you’re more likely to get into a crash. Period. End of story. And apparently texting while driving may be far more dangerous than simply chatting on a cell phone. Likewise, placing calls and manipulating cell phones can spike your risk, in and of itself.
However, even drivers who know better than to text while behind the wheel or to hold the phone to their ear while driving still think nothing of plugging in a hands free headset and yapping away for hours during road trips.
Chatting on a cell phone, even using a hands free headset, can be dangerous — potentially as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol, at least according to some initial studies.
Why is chatting on a cell phone so dangerous?
No one really knows. Some researchers believe that cell phone conversations essentially mentally transport drivers out of their vehicles – they distract in a bad way. Is this distraction more or less dangerous than the distraction caused by a conversation with a fellow passenger?
Perhaps. Hopefully, researchers will look into that and similar questions soon.
You also need to extrapolate your risks over time. Chatting on a hands free headset may be 20 times safer than texting while driving, but it still adds some danger. Maybe it increases your risk of an accident by 0.1% every trip. But if you’re chatting on your headset a lot – every time you go out on an errand or a road trip – and you persist with this behavior for years or decades – you’re going to increase your lifetime serious accident risk by a not-insubstantial factor.
All that said, if you’re dealing with the aftermath of a major crash, you may benefit hugely from a confidential free case evaluation with the team here at the law offices of Michael A. DeMayo. Get in touch with us today to understand your rights and potential points of leverage.
