texting while driving

Published on: February 26, 2024

How Passengers can Prevent Distracted Driving Car Accidents

If you are driving in a car with a driver who is texting at the wheel, then your chances of being involved in an auto accident increase significantly. However, there is much that you can do as a passenger to avoid car accidents caused by distracted driving.

Most motorists are aware of the dangers of texting while driving, but unfortunately, that does not necessarily prevent many of them from using their texting devices while driving. Georgia has laws that ban sending or receiving text messages while driving, but there are far too many drivers who abuse cell phone privileges behind the wheel. However, passengers may have a big role to play in helping reduce the incidence of such behaviors.

Insurance provider Erie recently consulted with a psychologist, and provided tips for passengers who see the driver of the car texting while driving. It is imperative that you speak up when you are traveling in a car and you see the driver texting while driving. Erie’s advice is that you negotiate with the driver. Tell him that if he or she really needs to be on his cell phone, you can take over his driving duties while he continues with his text messaging or cell phone conversation. This makes the driver aware that you are uncomfortable with the fact that he is texting while driving, and also gives him an alternate option that allows him to continue texting while ensuring everyone’s safety.

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: August 15, 2018

50 Percent of Parents Text While Driving With Children

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Georgia recently passed the Hands-Free Law that prohibits all motorists from driving with a handheld electronic device. However, most would be surprised to know that an astonishing number of parents admit to setting poor driving examples for their children by using cell phones and communication devices while driving.

According to the results of a study which was published in the journal Pediatrics recently, about 50 percent of parents admitted to regularly talking on their cell phones while driving with their children. About 1 in 3 admitted to texting while driving, and 1 in 7 admitted to using social media while driving. The children in these cases were between 10 and 14 years of age – impressionable minds that absorb their parents’ examples and behavior.

What’s worse, but not too surprising, is that these parents were also likely to engage in other equally harmful driving practices, whether their children were in the car or not, such as failure to wear seatbelts or driving under the influence of alcohol. About 14.5 percent of the parents included in the study failed to place their child in child safety systems while driving. The study also found a direct link between the rates of driving under the influence of alcohol and irresponsible cell phone practices at the wheel.

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: July 29, 2011

Distracted Driving: Part 1, Texting Laws and Stats You Will Not Believe

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

An estimated 20% of the over 1.5 million car accidents resulting in minor to severe injury were reported to have involved distracted driving in 2009. If you think of all the things you do while driving down the road daily, it is no wonder that distracted driving is the leading cause of auto accidents each year, from fender- bender to fatal injury.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has made it his mission to reduce these needless accidents. A USA Today article quotes LaHood as saying, "It is crystal clear that those who try to minimize this dangerous behavior are making a serious error in judgment, especially when half a million people are injured and thousands more are killed in distracted-driving accidents." As an Atlanta auto accident attorney, I always try to find out whether a driver involved was using a cellphone at the time of the accident.

LaHood’s focusis on drivers texting and cellphone use while behind the wheel. And, it isn’t just the kids anymore. Statistics from Distraction.org show the number of distracted drivers involved in fatal crashes increased from 7% in 2005 to 11% in 2009. Of those drivers, 30-to-39-year-old group had the highest proportion distracted by cellphone use. Those are not the numbers I expected to see!

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.

Published on: November 18, 2009

Study Reveals Teen Texting While Driving is Dangerously High

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Study Reveals Teen Texting While Driving is Dangerously High

A new study that included teens from Atlanta, has revealed some frightening statistics that should cause great concern to Georgia personal injury lawyers. The study included 800 teens between 12 and 17, and 74 more in 9 focus groups in Atlanta, New York, Denver and Ann Arbor. According to the study, about a quarter of teens aged between 16 to 17 years admit to having texted while at the wheel.

However, it’s not that fact – scary as it is – that worries us the most. Almost half of the respondents between 12 and 17 years old in the Pew survey, admitted that they frequently see their parents texting while driving.

Published on: September 25, 2009

Automakers Support Texting Ban in Cars

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Automakers Support Texting Ban to Minimize Risk of Car Accidents

Some of the country’s biggest automakers have announced that they support a ban on texting and the use of handheld cell phone devices while driving, to prevent the thousands of auto accidents that are caused every year by these behaviors. The announcement comes just days before a summit on distracted driving begins in Washington.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers which includes General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, says that it supports a ban on texting while driving, and also supports the use of voice-activated proprietary communication systems in place of cell phone use. For instance, Ford’s Sync system allows drivers to make phone calls using voice activation systems. Sync also plays back text messages that you receive, thereby allowing you to have a conversation and “read” a text message without using your hands, or more importantly, taking your eyes off the road. General Motors has its proprietary OnStar system, which includes the Hands Free Calling feature.

Published on: September 2, 2009

Texting-Related Accident Video Draws Ire

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

A Public Service Announcement video created by a British police department features a dramatization of an accident caused by a teen motorist who’s texting while driving. The YouTube video has gone wildly popular with over a million hits, but has also generated plenty of controversy because of its graphic content.

The video was made by the Police Department of Gwent in Wales, in response to the growing number of accidents linked to drivers texting at the wheel. It is gripping, and very graphic. This isn’t a sanitized "Don’t Text While Driving" message – there’s plenty of blood everywhere, and the video does a great job of showing the consequences of texting at the wheel.

The video has gone viral, and has generated controversy for its graphic scenes. There have been concerns about whether teenagers, who the video targets, can handle the blood and gore that’s on the screen. News media in this country too have featured the story, but as we write this, not one television station has agreed to air the PSA for American audiences.