Minneapolis Personal Injury Blog

A recent study by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HCDI) based on comparisons from states that banned driver texting with patterns of claims in other states show that ban has not reduced the number of car accidents.  This conclusion was based on analysis from four states that have recently banned driver texting-California (January 2009), Louisiana (July 2008), Minneosta (August 2008), and Washington (January 2008).  The most unexpected conclusion of the study is probably that the number of car crashes actually increased in three of the four states that enacted the ban with Minnesota having the highest increase with nine percent.

Studies have shown that approximately 48 percent of drivers text in states that do not ban driver texting.  Survey studies indicate that drivers in the age group o 18-24 year olds that 45 percent reported continue to text in states that have the ban.  Adrian Lund, president of the HLDI states that “If drivers were disregarding the bans, then the crash patterns should have remained steady.  So clearly drivers did respond the the bans somehow, and what they might have been dong was moving their phones down and out of sight when they texted, in recognition that what they were doing was illegal  This would exacerbate the risk of texting by taking drivers’ eyes further from the road and for a longer time.”

On July 24, 2009, Minneapolis car dealer, Denny Hecker, plead guilty in Hennepin County District Court to Careless Driving. The factual basis of the plea negotiation was that Mr. Hecker was texting on his cellular telephone and was not watching the road when he lost control of his vehicle and caused a one-car accident. Mr. Hecker’s criminal defense lawyer claimed that the car accident was not caused by the effect of Mr. Hecker’s six prescription drugs found in his blood system when he was injured in the December 3, 2008, collision in Plymouth, Minnesota. Nevertheless, Mr. Hecker was order to serve a sentence similar other first time DWI offenders in Hennepin County.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute released a new study on July 27, 2009, based on equipping trucks with video cameras and tracking approximately three million miles of hauling goods across the country. The study highlights the time that drivers were not looking at the road while sending and receiving texts. In situations where an accident occurred, or a near collision happened, drivers focused on their device for approximately five seconds, which at highway speeds equals the length of a football field. Rick Hanowski, who was in charge of the study stated that, “texting is in its own universe of risks” of contributing to car accidents and trucks accidents.

One area of surprise in the study was that research contradicts previously reported risks of talking and listening to cellphones. This study concludes that listening and talking on a cellphone does not increase the risk of an accident nearly as much as the previously report comparison to a driver operating their vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.