Texting drivers---driving while blindfolded

Upon many of our neighborhood streets, roads, highways, expressways and freeways, one can see the drivers of moving vehicles texting or emailing.  The driver's eyes are intentionally diverted away from the roadway to a hand held device while the note is written or the reply is sent.  When accidents occur and serious personal injury is the result, the offending drivers often contend their messaging "only took a few seconds."

Looking at the driver's statement from a scientific vantage point, the cause of the accident becomes very clear.  Accident Reconstruction Experts across the country use the same basic formula to convert miles per hour into feet per second.  Using the defendant drivers' statement, the experts can determine how far the offending vehicle travelled with the driver's attention focused off the roadway. 

Consider these examples: A car travelling 35 miles per hour is also travelling 51 feet per second.  In 3 seconds, the car has travelled one half of a football field.  Place that same texting driver at 50 miles per hour, and the car is travelling 74 feet per second; in the same three seconds at this speed the car has travelled 222 feet with the driver not paying attention to the roadway.  At freeway speeds of 65 miles per hour, the car is travelling 96 feet per second or 289 feet in those three seconds.  The fact that texting or emailing drivers are causing so many major accidents with severe and catastrophic injuries is easy to understand using these basic principals of accident reconstruction. 

Shea & Shea is a nationally recognized personal injury law firm located in San Jose, California, with extensive experience in motor vehicle accidents involving big rigs, trucks and automobiles.  Texting or emailing drivers often cause accidents resulting in wrongful death, brain injury, and other serious and catastrophic injuries.  Since 1966, Shea & Shea have successfully represented the seriously injured and their families in both state and federal courts.   To learn more, visit us at www.Shea-Shea.com or telephone 888-989-SHEA