Deadly Car Accidents Caused by Cell Phone Use Declines

Not that those of practicing personal injury law in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale or Palm Beach would agree, given the number of deadly accidents we see weekly, but according to data from the Department of Transportation, car accidents resulting in wrongful deaths due to distracted drivers actually dropped last year by six percent.

The Department’s statistics indicated that more than 5400 people died due to car accidents caused by distraction in 2009, compared to more than 5,800 such wrongful deaths in 2008. All in all, drivers using cell phones, whether for calling or texting, were cited as a factor in sixteen percent of car crashes and wrongful deaths in both 2008 and 2009. According to the Secretary, the statistics may be skewed because many police departments do not include such cell phone usage in their crash data.

While the statistics are certainly a welcome note, according to the Secretary of Transportation, “We are not talking about numbers, but about lives being broken and people being killed in crashes that are 100 percent preventable.” As personal injury lawyers practicing throughout the State of Florida, we could not agree more with the Secretary’s opinions, and we hope all drivers would limit their texting and reading emails while driving on our roadways.