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Car Cell Phone Use as Dangerous as Drunk Driving

By John Cooper

If the driver who struck your car with his pickup truck was talking on the cell phone causing your wife to be hospitalized, it is just as if he was driving while intoxicated. As a Virginia injury attorney, I follow the studies about cell phone use in automobiles which show that drivers talking, even on a hands free device, are driving with only half of their brain. A person driving his vehicle and talking on the phone is not able to pay as much attention to what is going on on the highway as a person who is concentrating on the driving task.

So, the proposals for new laws in Virginia saying that handheld cell phone usage should be prohibited only go to part of the problem but not the real problem. It isn't that you only have the use of one arm while talking on a handheld cell phone that is the problem. It is the loss of one half of your brain while you are distracted even on the hands free unit that causes the car crash.

When I file a lawsuit whether in a Virginia (VA) or a North Carolina (NC) court on behalf of someone who was injured in an automobile accident, I immediately send a question to the at-fault driver that asks them for a copy of their cell phone bill for the month, including the date of the crash. Having the evidence in the lawsuit to prove that the driver who struck my client in their car was chatting on the phone when the collision occurred makes a big difference. If there are serious injuries, or even a wrongful death, associated with a motorist who is distracted on the cell phone, the insurance company for the at-fault driver is going to have to pay a maximum award to the individual or family I am helping.

Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm is based in Virginia (VA), near the Northeast North Carolina (NC) border, practicing primarily in the southeastern U.S. and handles only injury law, including car, truck, railroad, and medical negligence cases and more. The firm's website is: hsinjurylaw.com, the firm edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, as well as the Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard and also hosts a video library covering many FAQ's on personal injury subjects. Lawyers licensed in: VA, NC, SC, WV, DC, KY.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by John Cooper

Full post as published by Norfolk-Portsmouth Personal Injury Lawyer on March 09, 2009 (boomark / email).