A new study conducted by Cambridge Mobile Telematics as part of distracted driving awareness month identified driving data linked to more than 100,000 vehicle operations. This showed that half of all car crashes involved a driver who was distracted by a phone at some point during their trip.
Within a minute of car crashes, one in four drivers was using their phone immediately before the accident happened. A major side effect of distracted driving is that other drivers, pedestrians, motorcyclists and bicyclists can all be significantly injured. Traffic fatalities have increased by 14% since 2015, the biggest two-year increase in U.S. traffic fatalities across five decades.
The CMT study looked at the data for more than 100,000 drivers across 18 months. The average length of a distraction for a person using their phone in any situation that resulted in a crash was 135 seconds. Phone distraction happened for two minutes or longer during 20% of the distracted drives. Those individuals who are most distracted behind the wheel are 2.3 times more likely to be involved in a crash when compared with a typical driver. They are also 5.8 times more likely than the least distracted of drivers.
Have you already been hurt in a distracted driving accident? Contact a San Francisco automobile accident lawyer today to learn about your rights.