The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration defines distraction as anything that diverts a driver’s attention from the primary tasks of navigating a car and responding to critical events. A visual distraction is something that takes a person’s eyes off the road, a cognitive distraction takes someone’s mind off the road, and a manual distraction takes someone’s hands off the wheel. When you think about tasks that cause a significant distraction, they often fit into more than just one category. For instance, eating is manual and visual, whereas using a GPS navigation is all three.

Types of Distractions Resulting in Car Accidents

There are two central components of the distraction safety problem: The attention demands of the distracting task and the frequency with which a driver chooses to multitask. Task demands relate to the number of resources (cognitive, visual, manual) required to do the task. The other issue is exposure, which is how often a driver engages in the task. Putting the two concepts together, even an simple task can be a greater safety problem if the driver does the task 50% of the time driving. The U.S. Department of Transportation reports in its most recent statistics that there were 3,154 people killed and an estimated additional 424,000 injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers over the last reported year. Ten percent of deadly crashes, eighteen percent of car injury crashes, and sixteen percent of all reported vehicle traffic crashes were as a result of distracted drivers.

Contact an Accident Lawyer in Tampa

If you or a family member has been injured in car accident, contact the Capaz Law Firm to speak with an experienced car accident lawyer. We know just how devastating an auto accident can be and will fight aggressively to hold the negligent party accountable. Call 813.440.2700 for your free consultation.