At the beginning of September, a notice was issued by National Transportation Safety Board stating that all the 3.7 million commercial drivers in the United States should not be allowed to use cellphones while driving, according to news reports.
Studies were conducted and results were administered by the National Transportation Safety Board that clearly showed that most of the road side accidents in the country were caused by drivers that were using cellphones while driving.
The decision of the NTSB to forbid all truck drivers from using cellphones and other devices while driving is expected to reduce crash fatalities, as these large vehicles have been shown to cause the most damage.
The announcement comes after a truck crash that happened in Kentucky took 11 lives. The driver has been proven to have been talking on his cell phone in the moments leading up to the crash. Records indicate that the truck driver used his cell phone 69 times in the 24 hours before the accident occurred.
As a Los Angeles car accident lawyer, I hope that new laws will decrease the number of fatalities on the roadway. A cell phone ban may seem harsh, but in my experience as a personal injury lawyer, I’ve seen how a distracted driver can cause tragedy on the roadway.
A study suggests the death rates in crashes of large vehicles has dropped significantly in recent years, according to recent news reports.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported that crashes in large trucks and cars dropped 64 percent from 2008-2009 compared to 2000-2001.
The study was conducted on one to four year old vehicles.
A safer design is credited with lowering the fatality rate. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration encouraged car manufacturers to make SUVs and trucks more crash friendly to small cars in 2003. The new standards required electronic stability control and more steady vehicle structures that prevent rollovers.
The study also suggests that smaller cars becoming safer may have something to do with the statistic, but mainly credits large car changes. For example, large cars’ bumper now match up with smaller cars. Previously, the bumpers were so high off the ground that they ran into the sheetmetal of doors in crashes.
As a Los Angeles car accident lawyer, I’m glad to hear that car makers are continually working on improving safety for all drivers, not just those who are behind the wheel of the car they manufacture. However, statistics show that the risk of fatality is still higher in an accident with a large car, so I hope they will continue to work on the issue. As a Los Angeles truck accident lawyer, the issue is one that is very important to me.
