Maine Injury Lawyer Blog

Distracted driving is one of the top causes of car accident death in the United States. Unfortunately, while most people know it is really dangerous to drive while they are distracted, drivers still do it every single day.

The National Safety Council is trying to discourage this risky behavior by emphasizing the dangers throughout Distracted Driving Month.Our Bangor accident attorneys know that Distracted Driving Month runs through April and will include both educational outreach programs as well as tougher enforcement of distracted driving laws. We urge every driver in Maine to give up distractions that take your eyes or mind away from the road.

Distracted Driving Dangers in Maine

As the Bangor Daily News reported in 2009, Maine lawmakers took a novel approach to distracted driving by allowing police to cite drivers who committed violations that law enforcement believed occurred as a result of driving while distracted. For example, if a driver ran a red light but police believed that it happened because of driver distraction, the driver could be cited for his lack of focus.

There are several different types of distractions that could result in a driver taking his mind off the road, all of which can be dangerous. For example, distractions include:

• Visual distractions: Taking the eyes off of the road and focusing on something else like a GPS or a text message.
• Manual distraction: Removing the hands from the wheel and using them to do something else like brush your hair, eat or change the music.
• Cognitive distractions: Focusing your brain on something other than driving, such as talking to a passenger or having a cell phone conversation.

Any of these types of distractions can significantly up your risk of a crash. However, perhaps the most dangerous of all distracted driving behaviors is texting because the distraction may fall into all three categories. Your hands could be on the phone; your eyes on the phone and your brain on the message you are sending.

Because texting is so dangerous, Maine also has a separate ban on texting as well as the general distracted driving law. Under Maine’s texting ban, texting is prohibited by all drivers.

NSC has also chosen to focus distracted driving month primarily on cell phone use, creating a pledge to drive text free.

NSC will be touching upon other issues including helping people to understand the dangers of cognitive distractions while driving. However, its website makes clear that it is cell phones especially that it wants to emphasize the dangers of. This decision makes sense when so many people are using cell phones to talk or text and when texting is so deadly.

Hopefully, Distracted Driving Month will be successful and drivers will make and follow through with the pledge to put the cell phones away while driving. This simple choice could save thousands of lives.

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Competing automakers for years worked to out-silence one another.

That is, they wanted to make a vehicle that purred as opposed to roared. They wanted the ride to be smooth and the sound to be as quiet as possible.

Then, it seemed like the hybrid and electric cars won that war, making nary a sound at all as they backed out, rounded a corner or pulled into a parking space.

However, our Bangor car accident lawyers aren’t the only ones who have noted the inherent risks.

The problem is that when a car doesn’t make any sound, no one knows it’s coming. People expect to hear a car that’s racing into a parking lot or backing out of an alley. Children are taught to stop and not only look but listen for vehicles that they may not be able to see coming.

This has been an issue that the National Highway Traffic Safety Association has grappled with for several years. In 2010, the issue of silent electric and hybrid vehicles was written into the 2010 Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act as something that would need to be addressed in the near future.

Now, the time has come.

The NHTSA has proposed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 141, which would mandate that all electric and hybrid vehicles meet minimum sound requirements so pedestrians and bicyclists will be able to determine the presence of those vehicle and from which direction when they are operating at lower speeds (which is when they are the quietest).

The proposal does provide flexibility for manufacturers in terms of varying sounds for different makes and models. However, the sounds must still be recognizable to those on the street as being the sound of a vehicle approaching.

Whatever sound the manufacturers choose, it must be heard over a wide range of other street noises. There must also be uniformity for each make and model of a certain vehicle.

The noise must be activated when the vehicle is traveling at 18 miles per hour or less. Any speed above that, and the vehicle makes sufficient noise on its own.

The NHTSA is hoping that the implementation of this rule is going to result in nearly 3,000 fewer pedestrian and bicyclist injuries over the life of each model year of hybrid vehicle.

The NHTSA’s final 248-page proposal also indicates that discounts would be provided to hybrid vehicle drivers who agree to have their vehicle retro-fitted with a sound-emitting device by 2016.

As it stands, there are approximately 1.4 million hybrid vehicles being driven in the U. ., which accounts for just 0.6 percent of all cars on the road today.

When the NHTSA looked at crash data from 2000 to 2006, they discovered that hybrid vehicles had a 40 percent higher pedestrian crash rate than vehicles that ran on gas. In particular, situations that involved low-speed maneuvers (back out, pull in, corner turns) revealed that hybrids were twice as likely to be involved in a pedestrian crash than other types of vehicles.

In 2009, hybrid vehicles were involved in 186 pedestrian crashes, compared to 5,700 involving gas-run vehicles. Hybrid vehicles were involved 116 bicycle crashes, while gas-run vehicles were involved in 3,050. It seems a drastic difference, but when you consider that hybrid vehicles account for just 0.6 percent of those on the road, theysshould only have been involved in 35 pedestrian accidents and 21 bicycle accidents.

Hopefully, once these sound requirements are fully in effect, we will begin to see some marked decreases in these figures.

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It’s no secret that teens are among the most at-risk population in terms of safety on the road.

Our Portland car accident lawyers know that their inexperience alone is a factor in many crashes, as is their propensity to become distracted and engage in reckless behaviors behind the wheel. When teens ride with each other, problems are exacerbated.

Now, a new report released by the Governors Highway Safety Association appears to indicate we still have a long way to go in doing all we can to ensure their well-being.

The report details traffic fatalities of drivers who are 16 and 17 in the first six months of 2011 compared to the first six months of 2012. It was the second straight year that we had seen an increase, but what was especially disheartening was that the rate of increase nearly doubled – from a jump of 11 percent to an increase of nearly 20 percent.

As we approach spring break, prom and graduation, these results stand as a stark reminder that we must be ever vigilant in protecting our teens.

Of particular concern are our 16-year-olds, whose fatality rates have been increasing steadily ever since 2009 – belying the theory that the improving economy is to blame for the recent increase (though that may be true to some extent for 17-year-olds).

One of the primary risk factors for 16-year-old drivers was the presence of passengers in the vehicle. Maine has been proactive in this by prohibiting new drivers from having any passengers in their vehicle (except for family members) for the first six months after obtaining their driver’s license. Still, it’s worth noting that many other states limit the number of under-21 passengers a young driver can have until they turn 18. Maine should look into enacting similar protections.

Additionally, the intermediate stage of the graduated driver’s license program in Maine, young drivers are also barred from driving between midnight and 5 a.m. Given that the likelihood of a crash increases at night, we hope this has helped to save a number of lives in our state.

Another major risk factor for young drivers is distraction. This comes in many different forms, obviously, but cell phones and texting continue to be a huge problem. To address it, legislators in Maine have enacted a text messaging ban that prohibits all drivers – regardless of age – from texting while they are driving. It’s considered a primary offense, which means police can stop you solely for this reason. For drivers under the age of 18, cell phone use while operating a motor vehicle is also banned.

New drivers as a whole lack the practical experience to be able to handle the complex task of driving. The requirements as laid forth in driver’s education provide the basis for the minimum level of preparedness. Giving your teen more practice – with you in the passenger’s seat – is only going to serve to boost her skills and help her know how to quickly react in bad situations.

Finally, talk to your kids about the risks of driving dangerously. Teens tend to be impulsive. It’s a fact of life. But it’s certainly within the boundaries of their control if they know the serious consequences of those actions.

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Snowstorms in Maine, like the one we’re experiencing now, are nothing new. Neither is the risk motorists take every time they get behind the wheel when road conditions are slick, snowy or icy.

Still, our Bangor car accident lawyers believe it’s worth an important to keep safety at the forefront, as a deadly series of winter storms has tracked across the Midwest and coastal areas of New England.

In Oklahoma, an 18-year-old driver was killed after crashing his vehicle when he lost control on a slush-covered road. Other similar accidents were reported in other areas of the country last week, where officials said there were expectations of between 10 to 12 inches of snow in some places. Of particular concern in many areas was the freezing rain and sleet that predictably made driving such a serious hazard.

Younger drivers in particular may be at risk because, even if they are native to this area and our weather, they are inexperienced with handling a vehicle in it. As parents, having asdiscussion about safe winter driving and limiting your teen’s driving hours in the midst of a very bad storm are wise.

There have been some concerns that this storm, when all is said and done, will rival the early February blizzard last year, blamed across the country for two dozen deaths and knocking out power to thousands of homes.

Here in Maine, weather officials predicted we would be hit with a minimum six inches of snow, beginning late Saturday and continuing through Sunday and possibly the earlier part of the week. Primarily, we were expected to see that inclement weather in the southern parts of the state, including Bangor and the Cape Code area.

You can’t control the weather, but you can control how safe you’ll be as you head out.

One of the ways you can reduce your chances of a crash is to make sure your vehicle is in good working order. Check your tire tread, your battery, your windshield wipers, your antifreeze and your no-freeze wiper fluid. You also want to make sure you have certain items stocked up: jumper cables, flashlight, sand or kitty litter (for if you get stuck), ice scraper and warning devices. If you’re going on a longer trip, add water, food, medication, cell phone and charger.

Also, bear in mind that every time you head out, it’s going to take you longer in the snow (and especially in a storm) to get where you need to go. Avoid the temptation to rush by giving yourself plenty of time. It’s Ok to be late. Better that you arrive safely.

If you have a new driver in your home, give him or her practice behind the wheel in the snow. Take your teen to an empty lot in the daytime, and have them rehearse. Teach skills like steering into a skid, give them a sense of understanding what the brakes are doing. Point out that stopping distances are going to be longer when the road is covered with ice or ice that is covered with water. Teach them too not to idle for too long with rolled-up windows or in an enclosed space.

Drive home the point too that drinking and driving are never a good mix. Instruct them to drop the speed and increase the distance between their vehicle and the one in front. Have them keep their eyes open for pedestrians and make sure they know not to drive if they are feeling too tired.

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