Texting and Driving in New York

Text messaging and driving has gotten a lot of attention over the past couple of years, as more accidents have been linked to texting. Many states have already banned drivers from texting, including Alaska, California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey and Washington. Even though New York does prohibit the use of hand-held cell phones while driving, the state does not have a law in place to ban texting and driving.

In July 2007, five high school cheerleaders who had just graduated were killed in western New York in a car accident that is believed to have been caused by texting. The girls’ car hit a tractor-trailer head on. According to an article on ABCNews.com, “cell phone records show a text message was sent from the phone belonging to the driver, Bailey Goodman, at 10:05:52. A reply was sent to her phone at 10:06:29. Thirty-eight seconds later, someone called 911 to report the accident that killed Bailey and her friends.”

Studies have linked text messaging and driving with an increased crash risk. One published study by the Transport Research Laboratory discovered that texting degrades performance in a driving simulator. It was found that drivers were more distracted when composing a text message than reading one. Seventeen drivers, ages 17 to 24, were studied and the results showed that they had slower reaction times, were more likely to drift in and out of their virtual lanes and were more likely to reduce their speeds while they were texting.

According to a Nationwide Insurance study, an estimated 20 percent of drivers are sending and receiving text messages while driving. Another poll showed that this number was as high as 66 percent when evaluating drivers ages 18 to 24.

It is difficult to determine the exact amount of crashes caused by texting, as there is not much data from real-world accidents. However, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence linking texting while driving to auto accidents.

A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that the majority of crashes occur within three seconds of a driver distraction. Three seconds can pass quickly when a driver is looking down to read or compose a text message, which significantly increases their risk of causing a serious car accident.

If you have been injured in a New York car accident that you believe was caused by a distracted driver, contact the experienced auto accident attorneys at Rappaport, Glass, Greene & Levine at (800) 734-9445 for a free legal consultation.