Zendrive, a company developed to gather and analyze driving behavior, recently conducted one of the largest distracted driving behavior studies to date, encompassing 3 million drivers. Zendrive found that drivers use mobile phones while driving 88 out of 100 trips.
Over the last two years, fatal collisions have increased dramatically. Because of this increase, Zendrive began studying the role of cellular phones in fatal car crashes. Zendrive found that during 88% of trips, drivers were using their smartphones. Phone use was averaged at about 3 minutes, 30 seconds per hour per trip. On this study alone, that totals about 5.6 million car rides with drivers talking or texting on their phones. If this number was extended to the entire United States, the number would be close to 600 million distracted driving trips per day!
With the phone use average at 3.5 minutes per hour, that equals out to 105 opportunities for a driver to injure himself and others. Zendrive conducted this study to examine ways to reduce distracting behaviors that lead to fatal collisions.
Currently, there are 15 states that ban the use of handheld mobile devices while driving. Even though Vermont has a hand-held phone ban for drivers, but still ranked #1 for having the most distracted drivers from cell phone use. 6 of the 15 states with mobile device bans rank in the top 10 states with the least distracted drivers.
Although some states are being proactive with distracted cell phone use while driving, drivers everywhere still risk their lives and the lives around them by using their cell phone. West Virginia became the 36th state to ban text messaging while driving. The ban of handheld devices came in effect in 2013 as a primary defense. Fines for using a handheld device in West Virginia is $100 for your first offense, $200 for a second offense, and $300 plus 3 points on your license for your third offense.
If you or a loved one has been injured by the negligence of a distracted driver, call our office today at (304) 367-1862 to speak to an attorney.
Attorney Timothy Manchin established the Manchin Injury Law Group in 2011 after his law partner of more than 25 years became a West Virginia circuit court judge. His focus is on helping individual clients and entire families victimized by negligent acts.
We offer a free initial consultation at our office in the Manchin Professional Building — our home since 1983 — conveniently located in Fairmont.
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