In September 2009, a 19-year old crossed double yellow lines and sideswiped a couple riding a motorcycle. The couple lost each of their left leg. The 19-year old was texting.
In September 2010, while coming home from Reno, Las Vegan Hillary LaVoie died as a result of a car accident because the driver of her car was speeding and posting Facebook messages on her cell phone. Their car rolled over, and Hillary was thrown from the car. She was only 18 years old at the time.
These are but two of a number of cases involving teenage distracted driving and catastrophic personal injuries and/or wrongful death.
A recent national survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and reported by the NHTSA last month revealed harrowing trends: According to the survey, drivers age 18 to 20 report being involved in twice as many crashes at 21-to-24 years old. The former were involved in 17% car accidents while the latter was reportedly involved in about 9%. What is even more disturbing are that both these age groups (18-to-20 and 21-to-24 years old) reported being involved in motor vehicle accidents up to four (4) more times than other age groups, which reported to being involved in car accidents about 4% to 6%.
In this survey, 13% of the 18-to-20 age group reported using a cell phone at the time of the motor vehicle accident. A total of about 11% involved sending or reading text messages or emails, and 2% involved talking on a cell phone.
A different survey of teens revealed that although they see distracted driving as a risky behavior, many believe that they can safely use their phones while driving. Some teens believe that using a cell phone while driving is safe because they see their parents doing so.
In another poll for AT&T reported by Reuters, about 75% of teenagers reported that texting while driving was common among their friends and that their parents text while driving at the same rate as they do. Some 41% reported seeing their parents texting and driving in recent months. A Consumer Reports survey showed that, while about 80% of teens reported awareness of the risk of texting while driving, 29% of those in the 16 to 21 age group reported texting while driving in the past month.
These survey results seems to be supported by the NHTSA survey findings, which revealed that that drivers under 24 years old are much more likely to text while driving (44% to 49%) than older drivers, and reported doing so at about twice as much as other drivers. Those in the 25-to-34 year old age group reported texting while driving about 26%, while older drivers, those 65 years and older, reported text ing while driving less than 1% of the time.
The lesson: if you want your teenage drivers to drive safely, you need to show them that safe driving means putting the cell phone away. If you have been injured in an automobile accident, contact Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorneys - Keith E. Gregory & Associates.
Tax day is hard enough but a study shows there are 13 more traffic deaths and automobile accidents on tax day than on any other day. It makes you wonder if it is the crazy driving trying to get to the post office in time, but studies show it is just stress in general.
 According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, deaths from traffic auto accidents rise 6% on tax day. This figure came from two Canadian researchers who tallied the tax day traffic auto accident fatalities for each year between 1980 and 2009. One an average there were 226 deaths on tax day – 13 more than a regular day.
Tax day can prompt procrastination, distraction, and anxiety. It can be the worry of wondering if you answered the questions correctly, if you have the money to pay the tax bill, or if the IRS will audit your filing.
Even with e-filing the distractions do not go away. Tax season is here to stay. Automobile accidents will happen. Benjamin Franklin said there were two definite certainties in life. Death and taxes. That we can be certain of.
If you get in an automobile accident, call our office, Keith Gregory & Associates. 702-382-3636.
 Las Vegas has had a rash of auto pedestrian accidents the last year. The number of traffic accidents went down but fatal auto accidents went up 32%. Just this week, there were two pedestrian accidents within 15 minutes of each other. These two people were lucky, the woman only broke her leg but the 16 year old has serious injuries. Why are they lucky? Because they were not a fatality! There were two differences in these accidents. The woman was in the crosswalk while the teen was not. Why do people think they have the right to just walk out in the street? I see this every time I am at a store. At the Walmart on Centennial Parkway, people don’t even look. They just walk out into the street and expect everyone else to be watching them. When you see people watching the light to turn in their favor so they can cross the street, they don’t even look to see if cars are stopping. They just start walking.
These type of car accidents in which the pedestrian is not in the crosswalk are hard to overcome in the Las Vegas personal injury field. If the pedestrian is 51% at fault for not trying to at least protect themselves, they will not be allowed to recover anything for their personal injuries in Las Vegas. If the pedestrian crosses when it is not in their favor or when they jaywalk, the drivers may not be at fault.
When crossing a street, always make sure you can be seen by cars. Make sure you are wearing clothes that are not dark if you are crossing in the evening. Make sure the driver of the car is alert and sees you before you step off the sidewalk. ONLY cross at marked crosswalks and intersections. Tourist who are trying to get to another venue usually don’t think they have the time to get to a crosswalk, but it is better to be safe than sorry.
If you or someone you care about is injured in a pedestrian accident, call our Las Vegas Personal Injury office 702-382-3636. We are skilled personal injury attorneys in Las Vegas. Our Las Vegas personal injury lawyers are trained to help you.
 Driving while distracted (DWD) can encompass several different areas: while eating, while texting, crying children, passengers in car, while on the cell phone, even driving while on FaceBook. Really, how you can you input status or read while driving? But I guess it is possible and is even being done. As I drive on the freeway, I see drivers slowly maneuvering down the road while sending a message or reading a message. They weave in and out and sometimes just by driving slow they cause an accident. When a Personal Injury Attorney is looking for what caused an accident, we look to see if they were on their cell phone. Injury Attorney’s at Keith Gregory & Associates ask questions relating to what they observed the driver in the other car doing. If they were on their phones it can qualify for liability.
I am all for legislation which stops this behavior. Is texting while driving the same as eating, or yelling at crying kids in the back seat, or switching songs on your iPod? Yet, because we can’t be pulled over for this distraction, we continue to do it. How many people have you seen driving while eating a burger and their knees are steering their car? As Personal Injuries Attorneys in Las Vegas we are trained to look for these areas of liability. At Keith Gregory & Associates we want to stop accidents that are caused by careless, distracted drivers. Driving while on the cell phone whether it is hand held or hands free makes a driver’s reaction time impaired as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08. (University of Utah) The number one source of driver inattention is use of a wireless device. (Virginia Tech/NHTSA) Drivers that use cell phones are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves and others. (NHTSA< Institute for Highway Safety)
Public safety analysts say human behavior may prove too difficult to change. Babies cry. Hot coffee spills. Music needs to be changed. Part of the problem is people think they are above average, they can multitask, and others will get tickets. Only time will tell.
According to a Reuters news article, investigation into the 2010 Kentucky accident involving a commercial truck that killed 11 people found that the responsible truck driver was on his cell phone when the accident occurred. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that the 45-year old truck driver had just initiated a call when his vehicle and the attached 53-foot-long trailer crossed a median on Interstate 65 and plowed into a van carrying 12 people. The truck driver and 10 people in the van died.
This is another sign that the use of cell phones while driving can be as deadly as driving under the influence of alcohol. The NTSB has recommended that the U.S. Department of Transportation ban commercial drivers from calling or texting except in emergencies.
The Nevada legislature recently passed Senate Bill 140, which prohibits the use of a cell phone or other handheld wireless communications device while operating a motor vehicle in certain circumstances. This new law takes effect October 1, 2011, and citations will issued under this new law beginning on January 1, 2012. Legislation such as SB 140 resulted from evidence of car accidents resulting from drivers distracted by cell phone usage. According to the Nevada Highway Patrol, there have been more than 3,500 distraction-related crashes in Nevada every year and more than 60 deaths in the past five years. NHP Trooper Chuck Allen has quoted national statistics showing that, in 2009, 5,470 people died on U.S. roadways, while another 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes reported to have involved distracted driving.
Alcohol and drugs are not the only items that impairs driver’s judgment or attention. There are now more and more stories about people being injured in car accidents as a result of cell phone use or texting. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, cell phone use was the cause of 18% of fatalities in accidents involving distracted drivers in 2009. For these crashes, the police reported that the cell phone was either in use at the time of the crash or was in the presence of the driver at the time of the crash.
Because of these incidents, groups have pushed for the passage of laws that would ban or penalize drivers using cell phones, especially texting, while driving.
The Nevada legislature have considered such laws. Current bills being considered by the Nevada legislature include AB 151, which would ban text messaging and the use of handheld phone and impose fines. If AB 151 is passed as written, it would also impose a prison term of 1-6 years with fines of $2,000 to $5,000 if “substantial body harm” results from the use of a handheld cell phone or from texting while driving. Testimony was presented during the legislative hearings that accidents are much more likely when people are distracted by being on their cellphone and texting presents an even greater danger.
Whether or not AB 151 and other similar proposed legislation are passed, a driver who is texting or using a handheld cell phone and gets into a car accident can be penalized through a civil suit. Nevada’s punitive damages statute, NRS 42.005, permits imposing punitive damages against a defendant who “has been guilty of oppression, . . . or malice, express or implied.” Malice has been defined by the Nevada Supreme Court to include situations where a defendant consciously disregarded the safety of others. Given that the dangers of cell phone use or texting while driving are so obvious, a driver distracted by a cell phone, especially by texting, can be said to have consciously disregarded the safety of other people on the road.
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ing while driving less than 1% of the time.
