Studies find that distracted driving, despite being illegal, is still very common. For instance, in one study, researchers determined that about 7.6% of drivers are using a smartphone at any given time. At this very moment, roughly 7.6% of the people on the road are probably looking at their phone screens rather than looking at the traffic around them.
It is also important to consider how often this distraction causes accidents. For instance, one study determined that the crash risk while distracted could be up to six times as high as it would be otherwise. Distracted drivers cause thousands of accidents every year. In 2021, those accidents took the lives of 644 people who weren’t even in other vehicles. They were children, pedestrians, cyclists and the like. And that doesn’t even consider everyone who suffered injuries or passed away after a distracted driving accident in another car.
Why would it be underreported?
Distracted driving is probably underreported because it is difficult to prove.
If a drunk driver causes a car accident, the police can give that driver a breath test. They can give them field sobriety tests. They may get the results of blood tests or urine tests from the hospital. They can prove that the driver was under the influence, and they know why that driver caused the crash.
But with distraction, there may not be any evidence. Unless there are records of device activity – such as a driver sending a text message seconds before the crash – the driver may simply deny that they were distracted by their device. Maybe they were just browsing social media or looking for a new song. As such, the number of distracted driving accidents reported every year is likely far lower than the number that actually occur.
Those who have been injured need to know how to seek financial compensation for medical bills and more.