Georgia hands free law

Published on: April 30, 2024

Stronger Laws, Education and Enforcement Impact Distracted Driving Car Accident Rates

A combination of strong laws, enforcement and education campaigns is being credited for a drop in distracted driving rates in several states.

A new report by the Governors Highway Safety Association finds that distracted driving is a major driver of car accident wrongful death rates. In 2021, distracted driving caused more than 12,000 wrongful deaths in car accidents and resulted in billions of dollars worth of property damage. However, some states have been very successful in reducing their accident fatality numbers.

The Governors Highway Safety Association recently released a report titled A Roadmap for Safer Roads. The report specifically looked at various states that have seen substantial success in reducing distracted driving accident rates and the techniques that have worked for these states. The Governors Highway Safety Association report found that a combination of strong laws, enforcement, education and auto technology was most effective in helping drive down the number of people using their cell phones while driving.

Published on: February 28, 2024

Cell Phone Use Continues to Remain Top Factor in Distracted Driving Car Accidents

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Driving while distracted is a complex phenomenon, and there are a varied number of distractions that can affect a motorist’s ability to drive safely and avoid car accidents. However, cell phone use behind the wheel continues to remain the number one factor causing distracted driving accidents.

That information comes from a new study released by the Insurance Information Institute. The study report titled Distracted Driving: State of the Risk underscores the fact that distracted driving as a car accident factor has become even more prominent since the pandemic. According to the report, there has been a significant 20% increase in distracted driving in the United States between February 2020 and February 2022. Even that might be a much lower figure than reality as distracted driving remains widely under- reported. It is still very challenging for law enforcement officers in many states to pull over drivers who are distracted by their cell phones, and very often, these actions go undetected. The report estimates that even a 10% increase in distracted driving kills more than 420 people, and results in more than $4 billion dollars in damages every year.

The Insurance Information Institute says it has also found a significant increase in the amount of time that motorists spend on their cell phones while actually in motion. While cell phone use and texting continue to be the primary distracted driving behaviors, many motorists are also spending a lot of their time browsing the internet while driving. They are also reading and answering emails while at the wheel. Other distracting activities include taking selfies while driving.

Published on: September 11, 2023

Texting Ban Leads to Drop in Georgia Car Accident Rates

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

A law that prohibits the use of hand cell phones while driving for Georgia motorists has possibly contributed to a drop in the number of auto accidents caused by distracted drivers in the state. Unfortunately, before the law was passed, there were a significant number of car accidents in Georgia involving persons talking and texting while driving.

According to representatives at the Georgia Governors of Highway Safety, there has been a reduction in the number of car accidents directly caused by distracted motorists since the ban was passed. The law which prohibits Georgia motorists from using a handheld cell phone to send or receive text messages or to even touch a telephone while driving was passed in 2017, and went into effect the following year.

The Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety only has statistics for the year 2021, and the data for that year seems to indicate that the number of people convicted for handheld cell phone use increased significantly after the stricter ban was enacted. There were more than 43,000 distracted driving convictions in 2021 for violation of the ban. Many of these involved people who were driving while holding their cell phones. That was a significant four -fold increase from 2017.

Published on: March 4, 2022

Bill Would Allow Georgia Motorists to Hold Cell Phones at Stop Lights

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Under Georgia’s current laws, drivers are prohibited from holding a cell phone while driving a car. If a recently introduced bill becomes law, that could soon change.

Senate bill 356 was recently introduced in the Georgia Senate, and would allow drivers to use their hands to hold a cell phone while the car is not in motion or when the car is at a stoplight. The bill has been introduced as a way to provide an easy solution to a common dilemma facing many Georgia drivers. According to those introducing the bill, motorists often complain that they find themselves waiting at stoplights behind drivers who are looking down at their cell phones in their hands and, therefore, not aware of the change in lights. According to the bill writers, allowing motorists to use cell phones while at stop lights would encourage them to hold their cellphone up, which would also allow them to notice the change in lights, thereby preventing them from blocking motorists behind them.

The bill is already getting a lot of pushback from interested parties. At a recent hearing, lawmakers heard from physician groups, associations of police officers and other traffic safety advocates. They said that allowing motorists to use their hands to hold a cell phone while at the wheel simply increases the range of distractions and is completely unnecessary. Opponents of the bill say that allowing cell phone use of any type when a motorist is driving, regardless of whether he is at a stoplight or not, is a bad idea that immediately puts motorists in a distracted frame of mind.

Published on: August 23, 2019

Do Hand-Free Laws Stop Distracted Driving? Not Necessarily.

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

It has been over a year since Georgia’s Hands-Free Law went into effect on July 1, 2018. Since then, a few other states have joined Georgia in implementing bans on hand-held devices while driving. It may be surprising to know, however, that while almost all states in the U.S. have no-texting-and-driving laws, only about one-third of the states in the U.S. have a complete cell phone ban while operating a motor vehicle. But do these hands-free laws stop distracted driving, and more importantly, reduce the risk of deadly car accidents? Not necessarily.

Distracted driving is the number one cause of fatal traffic accidents nationwide. A driver can be distracted due to a number of causes besides just using a cell phone. Any activity that takes a driver’s attention away from the road, even for a second, counts as distracted driving. This can include eating or drinking in the car, putting on makeup and even changing the radio station. Statistics on hands-free laws have shown that even though the number of drivers using cell phones may be down, the number of car accidents is not. However, cell phone use while driving has been known to cause the most deadly results of the distracted driving car accidents.

Even with hands-free laws around the country, statistics show that man drivers are still using their phones while driving. It is still pretty common to see drivers using their phones while stopped at red lights at intersections or stuck in traffic. And a fair number of drivers actively use their cell phones while actually driving on the roads. Drivers who engage in active cell phone use while driving are usually the ones that engage in other high risk behaviors while driving as well.

Published on: November 14, 2017

Georgia Lawmakers Consider Anti-Distracted Driving Measures

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Lawmakers in Georgia are looking closer at steps that can be taken to strengthen the state’s laws targeting distracted driving in order to reduce the number of accidents involving electronic distractions.

In 2016, there were more than 1,500 fatalities on Georgia highways, a one-third increase from 2015. It’s not clear how many of those fatalities were directly linked to the use of electronic devices while driving. However, it is very likely that the overall national increase in traffic accident fatalities is directly linked to more motorists using cell phones and texting while driving.

In fact, statistics show that just in last year alone, the Georgia Department of Driver Services issued more than 3,800 citations to motorists who were found using phones while driving. That was an increase of more than 30% from 2015.

Published on: December 7, 2012

No-Texting Law Rarely Enforced in Georgia

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Unfortunately, Georgia’s ban on texting while driving for all motorists has not been effectively enforced since the law went into affect more than 2 years ago.According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, since the ban on texting while driving was imposed in Georgia, less than 50 people a month are convicted of texting while driving.In fact, the number of people who are convicted of texting while driving annually is miniscule, compared to the number of people convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution analyzed state records as of September 17, 2010, and found that enforcement of texting while driving laws is pitiful in the state.(They also provided a breakdown of convictions for texting while driving in Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Clayton, and Cobb Counties.)There were 1,281 convictions for texting while driving-related offenses during this period of time, while 22,500 people were convicted for driving under the influence of alcohol during the same time.Georgia State troopers admit that they have only been able to issue about 11 citations per month since the law went into effect on July 1, 2010.

Many Atlanta car accident lawyers find that part of the problem with enforcing the law is that the law makes it difficult for police officers to pull people over for texting while driving.The onus of responsibility to prove that the motorist was texting while driving is placed on the law-enforcement officer.Officers must be able to prove that the motorist was indeed texting while driving, and not merely dialing a cell phone while driving, or accessing a map.

Published on: October 26, 2010

Why Georgia Needs to Pass a No Texting While Driving Bill

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

A Lilburn teenager was seriously injured in a single vehicle accident apparently caused because he was text messaging while driving. Nineteen-year-old Soheb Roy was text messaging his friend while driving his car, and crashed the vehicle into a telephone pole. He sustained serious injuries. The impact of the accident was strong enough to break the telephone pole into two. Police are likely to charge Roy with improper use of a cell phone while driving and failure to maintain lanes.

The accident is just one more reason why we need to have a new bill banning text messaging, passed as quickly possible. Last week, state republicans Allen Peake and Amos Amerson introduced bills that will ban text messaging behind the wheel for all motorists. Violations will come with fines and license penalties. The bill proposes fines of $50 and at least two license penalty points for violations.

Last year, one bill that would have banned texting while driving only for teen drivers, failed to pass. Whether this new bill will have better luck, remains to be seen. Georgia has failed to take the kind of serious steps necessary to prevent the 1.4 million crashes every year that are caused by having conversations on cell phones while driving, and 200,000 crashes that occur because of text messaging while driving.

Published on: April 7, 2010

Georgia House Passes Ban on Texting While Driving

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Georgia House Passes Ban on Texting While Driving

The Georgia House last week passed a bill that will ban texting while driving for all motorists, and cell phone use for motorists below the age of 18. The bill will now go to the Senate, and Atlanta injury lawyers are hoping for the passing of a long-awaited legislation that will reduce the risk of distracted driving on our streets.

Bill 938 was approved by a 134-31 vote. It now goes to the Georgia Senate, and if the Senate does what Atlanta accident lawyers hope it will, then the bill will go to Gov. Sonny Perdue, and finally become law. The sponsor of the bill Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, says the bill is a no-brainer, given the widely recognized risks of texting while driving.