Distracted Driving

Distracted driving is any activity that diverts attention from driving and focusing on the road. Texting, talking on the phone, eating, or using the navigation system some examples of distracted driving.

The dangers of cell phone usage while driving are startling to hear. Nearly 390,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving. It is more likely to cause an accident being distracted than driving drunk.

In 2018, 25-year-old Natasha Boggs was sentenced to six years in prison for killing two teenage girls while driving and texting.

Boggs was not under the influence, speeding, or impaired but her inability to be focused while driving caused her to end two lives.The accident was said not to be malicious but she tried to hide to the fact that she was texting while driving. She deleted texts from her phone immediately after the accident which resulted in a count of evidence tampering along with involuntary manslaughter and one count each of vehicular assault.

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “nine percent of fatal crashes in 2017 were reported as distraction-affected crashes.”

Many states have put new laws into place regarding distracted driving. In Florida, the new law will ban the use of any handheld wireless communication device in construction and school zones, making it a primary offense, in efforts to save a lot of lives.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill and stated, “Studies have shown that texting while driving is one of the worst of all driving distractions and a recent study ranked Florida as the second worst state for distracted driving.”

The law does not apply to use of a navigation system or to those who are not in motion.

In New York, the use of any hand-held cell phone while driving is prohibited on any road. According to the law, “a handheld device can be a cell phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), laptop, pager, video game console, or any other portable computing or communications device.”

When any of these are in the vehicle, they may not be used in any way other than something built into their vehicle or using a handheld device that is attached to the car itself.