Dallas Personal Injury Attorney Nick Feizy From Feizy Law Office Reveals The Ramifications of Texting While Driving.
Texting while Driving has been ruled as the cause of some car accidents. To see if this is in fact possible, a study done by Car and Driver in 2009 tested the reaction time of drivers under four conditions. The magazine tested how long it takes to brake when sober, when the driver has a 0.08 blood alcohol content (legally drunk in Texas), when emailing and when texting. They had their drivers drive at 70 MPH on a deserted air strip. Interestingly, the results of Car and Driver editor Eddie Alterman showed that when he was driving sober it took him 0.54 seconds to brake. When he became drunk by drinking Vodka and orange juice it took him four extra feet to brake. When he was driving and reading an email it took him 36 extra feet to brake. When he was driving and texting it took him an extra 70 feet to brake (Texting and Driving: How Dangerous Is It? – Feature by Michael Austin, June 2009). This study shows that texting while driving is far more risky and dangerous than driving while legally drunk!
Nick Feizy, car accident attorney, indicates that beside the slower reaction times and the obvious dangers posed while texting and driving, there are also legal ramifications to deal with. There could be harsh civil liability for one that causes such accidents. Although many car accident cases settle out of court and are usually paid by the insurance company of the party at fault, some do not settle and go all the way to trial. Depending on the nature of the accident and the circumstances involved, jury verdicts could be very high indicating strong discontent for such actions.
According to a March 19, 2010 story by KWTX TV News 10 in Waco, Texas, a jury entered a 22 million dollar verdict against a Texas A&M University student in damages to be paid to the family of a Baylor University student who died in a head on car collision. After all the evidence was presented the jurors decided that the Texas A&M student caused this motor vehicle accident because he was texting while driving.
Thus, according to the above paragraphs, not only is one’s response time much lower when texting while driving, the liability for such act can be very damaging to a person causing an accident if found to have been guilty of texting while driving.