Living Will California Law
Using a Cell Phone While Driving Causes Injuries in California
Talking or texting on a cell phone while operating a vehicle distracts drivers, making everyone on the road vulnerable to suffering serious personal injuries from the resulting accidents. Whether it’s a single car accident, a rear-end accident or whether it’s an accident involving a pedestrian or bicyclist on the side of the road, the lesson is the same: texting and talking on the phone while driving can place drivers, their passengers, and others, in danger. These activities are illegal in many states.
In California, drivers must use a hands-free device if they plan to use their mobile phones at all while driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that,
“In recent years, both NASS [National Automotive Sampling System] and FARS [Fatal Analysis Reporting System] have attempted to identify cellular telephone use as a pre-crash factor from police crash report narratives. Although there is a serious under-reporting bias in the data, there are trends which show that cellular telephone use is a growing factor in crashes. Driver inattention is the most frequently cited pre-crash condition for drivers who use cellular telephones.”
The NHTSA report reveals that drivers seem to be most distracted by the conversations themselves, not dialing the phone as originally thought. Some drivers also become startled when the phone rings and may drive off the road while trying to answer it.
Report shows poor driving conditions contribute to danger
It can be difficult to track the incidence of accidents and injuries caused exclusively by cell phone usage. Those people who cause accidents may hang up their phones at the scene to avoid looking reckless or negligent. The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) found that drivers using cell phones are more likely to get into accidents under certain conditions, such as inclement weather, during rush-hour traffic, and on wet roads. The PPIC study found, “If the weather is bad and the roads are wet, the effect is large.”
People who use their cell phones while driving make themselves and others sharing the roads and sidewalks vulnerable to serious injury by running off the road, hitting someone or something, or unintentionally crossing lanes of traffic.
California cell phone legislation may decrease injuries
A recent California law prohibits handheld cell phone use while driving. Vehicle Code Division 11, Chapter 12, Article 1, Section 23123: Hand-Held Wireless Telephone: Prohibited Use, requires that drivers to use cell phones capable of hands-free use and to use them in that manner. Violators may be subject to fines between $20 and $50 per offense.
The Public Policy Institute of California expects that this new California cell phone law may save up to 300 lives per year that would otherwise be lost to accidents caused by drivers distracted by cell phones.
But next time you’re on the road, look around you. You will probably see multiple drivers completely ignoring the law, holding cell phones up to their heads and talking away—and probably drifting into your lane. Our police are overburdened as it is, but until the law is vigorously enforced, the danger level will remain higher.
About the Author
Beau Nokes is an Orange County personal inury lawyer at the Nokes & Nokes law firm. He can be reached at the Aliso Viejo office at 949-716-7200 or at the Newport Beach office at 949-759-4440.
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