One in ten California drivers won’t hang up their phones
According to the results of a safety study released by the California Office of Traffic Safety, more than ten percent of California drivers practice inattentive driving habits related to using a cellphone in some form while behind the wheel. To conduct this study, law enforcement officers monitored more than 130 intersections in 17 counties throughout the state during daylight driving hours. The officers noted any instance in which a driver was holding a cellphone up to his or her ear, wearing a Blutooth hands free communication device, or using their cellphone for any other purpose while operating a moving motor vehicle. From the results of these field studies, officers concluded that approximately 10.8 percent of the drivers observed were engaged in some form of cellphone based distracting behavior, an increase of 3.5 percent when compared to a previous study using the same research methods conducted last year. While the increase was spread across every age demographic, the biggest increase observed was in the 16-to-25 year old age bracket, which doubled their behind the wheel cellphone use rate from 9 percent in 2011 to 18 percent this year.
As a car accident attorney in Roseville, I have seen firsthand the damage that can be caused when drivers shift their focus away from the road ahead of them. If you or someone you know has been injured in a collision linked to inattentive driving, please consider contacting a Roseville personal injury lawyer.
