Personal Injury Law

DRIVERS ON CELL PHONES SLOW YOU DOWN

By Rick Shapiro

Authored by: Randall Appleton

As a personal injury lawyer with a long commute from Nags Head, NC to Virginia Beach, VA each day, I was amazed at some news about cars and cell phones in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. Recent studies have indicated that drivers talking on cell phones are making commutes longer.

Motorists speaking on telephones move about 2 mph slower on congested highways and just don't keep up with the flow of traffic. The study also showed that if your commute is an hour a day, this could add about 20 hours a year to the commute. The study was based on three dozen students driving in simulators which indicated that drivers on cell phones are far more likely to stick behind a slow car in front of them and that they change lanes about 20% less often than drivers not on a cell phone. Overall, cell phone drivers took about 3% longer to drive the same route than people who were not on a cell phone. About one in ten drivers is typically on a cell phone so the time adds up quickly according to the study. Together with the fact that cell phones also distract the motorist, this news makes me even more ready to sue the insurance company of a person talking on the cell phone when he runs into and hurts my client.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.

Full post as published by Norfolk-Portsmouth Personal Injury Lawyer on January 18, 2008 (boomark / email).