Statistics of Cell Phones Causing Car Accidents
The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog has posted an article about "jarring" statistics linking cell phone use to automobile accidents. Using data supplied by a Washington Post article, the blog post says that 342,000 accidents are caused annually by people being distracted by cell phones while driving. This also results in 2,600 fatalities and...
$43 billion each year in property damage, lost wages, medical bills and fatalities.
The Washington Post cited these statistics:
Cellphone users are up to four times more likely to be in a traffic accident, and the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis estimated in 2003 that their use was a factor in 6 percent of accidents. That translated to 636,000 crashes resulting in 12,000 serious injuries and 2,600 deaths.Truck drivers are at far greater risk when they reach for their phones, according to a recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. They are at almost six times greater risk when dialing and 23 times greater when texting.
In 2003 there were roughly 240,000 accidents and 940 fatalities from cell phone use while driving. This is clearly a problem on the rise.
