Texting while driving is illegal in North Carolina, as it is in most states. However, the criminal penalties have yet to catch up to the dangers posed by texting or otherwise being distracted by your phone while driving. Texting and driving is far more common than drunk driving, but many texting driver react more slowly than drunk drivers, and the injuries they case are just as terrible.
The nonpartisan Pew Research Center has performed multiple studies on texting while driving, and the results are not great for the American public. Here is some of that information: http://pewrsr.ch/1bt6sC5. The problem with texting and driving is that typically the driver has BOTH hands off the wheel and their eyes off the road AND their attention is focused on the text, and not on driving. This means their reaction time is often worse than someone who is driving under the influence of alcohol, as they have to move their hands, their eyes and possibly there head AND they have to pull their mental focus out of the text and re-focus on driving.
Think of how often you’ve been reading a book or a magazine and someone asks you a question. If you’re like most people, your most common response is, “what did you say?” When you’re sitting on your couch or at your kitchen table, no one is in danger. But a driving traveling at 65 mph on a highway is an entirely different story, often with terrible consequences.
Sean Cole is an attorney with the experience and skill to handle injuries arising from distract driving and drunk driving cases. If you’ve been injured by a texting, distracted, or drunk driver, contact us now for an evaluation of your case.
If you’re worried about this issue and the dangers it poses to the public, join us in doing something about. Don’t just pursue your own case, but reach out to your legislators and tell them to take the issue more seriously. This link will take you to the website for the General Assembly, and you can access directories of all your state legislators: https://www.ncleg.gov/About/ContactInfo. If you need to learn who represents you, this link gives you that information with just your address: https://www.ncleg.gov/findyourlegislators.