Greenberg & Stein are personal injury lawyers of New York City taking on distracted driving accidents.
Everybody’s life is filled with distractions these days and any activity that takes your concentration off the road while driving and puts it somewhere else, is a distraction. Taking your eyes off the road for even a second can mean life or death driving accidents. Unfortunately, many New York drivers do not understand the dangers of distracted driving accidents.
Anything that takes your focus away from the road and driving in a safe and defensive manner can be labeled as distracted driving. Searching for the right music station, checking your voicemail, looking at a text message and even daydreaming may seem “harmless” but they can result in serious and even fatal car accidents.
Driving distractions fall into three categories: personal, external or internal:
According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report created to analyze the impact of “Driver Inattention On Near-Crash/Crash Risks” distracted driving is the primary contributing factor to crashes and near crashes. Almost 80% of crashes and 65% of near accidents in this study involved the driver looking away from the forward roadway just prior to the conflict.
For the most part, the reality of what daily driving or driving long distances is like isn’t taught in driver’s education classes. How to change your music when fully stopped, dealing with other erratic drivers, handling traffic, navigate the GPS—all these mean taking your eyes off the road—even if only for a second. A second is how long it takes for accidents to happen.
Drivers can be distracted visually, manually and cognitively; each one either takes the driver’s eyes off the road, the driver’s hands off the wheel or the driver’s mind off the road.
Here is a list of visual, manual and cognitive distractions during driving:
Unfortunately, the dangers of distracted driving are not understood by many drivers in the United States (not just New York), so while traveling anywhere- even a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere (and perhaps especially there!) be alert and aware of other distracted drivers.
New York law prohibits drivers of all ages from holding and using portable electronic devices while driving. The ban was implemented on July 12, 2011, and one year later Governor Cuomo reported that there had been 20,000 tickets issued to motorists for violations of the ban.
The highest concentrations of “texting while driving” tickets last year were issued in Manhattan (3,714), followed closely by Queens (3,334) and Brooklyn (3,234).
Exceptions to the New York texting laws are:
If you suffered an injury or lost a loved one in a car accident because of a distracted driver, you need a car accident lawyer in New York City to help you recover the compensation you deserve.
At Greenberg & Stein we proudly serve Manhattan, Queens, L.I., Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx. We are committed to giving clients the best legal advocacy we can offer. The sooner we hear from you, the faster our New York City personal injury lawyers can work together to create an effective and aggressive strategy for your case.
360 Lexington Avenue, Suite 1501
New York, NY 10017
Call us today: 888-411-3966
Email us anytime: seth@greenbergandstein.com