Last week, we wrote a car accident lawyer blog about a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study that detailed the dangers of distracted driving on semi-truck drivers.  So how did researchers do this texting-while-driving study?

The answer: hard work and a lot of truckers.

The distracted driving results drew from two studies involving seven major trucking fleets, and 200 of their semi-truck drivers who took turns driving 55 long-haul trucks.  In the two studies, there were 21 car accidents and 197 near crashes from a variety of auto accident causes.  There were also about 3,000 other near crashes and 1,200 unintended lane changes.

To identify car crashes or near crashes, researchers used software that detected sudden and severe decelerations (when a car driver slams on the brakes).  They also placed numerous cameras in the cabs of the semi-trucks to determine if anything distracted the truck drivers just before the crash or near crash.

In the case of text messaging, the software detected 31 near crashes in which the cameras confirmed the trucker was texting, though thankfully no actual collisions occurred.  In the random moments of videotape, there were just six instances of text messaging truckers’ that did not result in the software detecting a dangerous situation.

“If you’re not watching the road for almost five seconds, it’s a crash waiting to happen,” said one man, who oversaw the trucking study.

Is a friendly text worth the high-risk of causing a car accident that could potentially take your own life or the lives of other innocent drivers?  Our car accident attorneys believe that no distraction is worth the pain and suffering a car accident will cause you or others.

Distracted driving is at least partly to blame for 80% of all auto accidents.  These distracted driving findings are just the latest reasons we hope will deter drivers from sending texts while driving.

Why not pull over to the side of the road to answer phone calls — or avoid them altogether — rather than increasing your chance of being involved in an auto accident?


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