Philadelphia Car Accident Attorney Strongly Disagrees With Pennsylvania Legislature’s Choice Not To Ban Cell Phone Use While Driving
For many years, the experienced Philadelphia car accident attorneys at Reiff and Bily have been representing catastrophically injuried individuals, as well as wrongful death cases resulting from people driving a vehicle while on a cell phone and not paying attention to the rules of the road.
Last week, the legislators of Pennsylvania, for some reason which I cannot comprehend, voted to add a $50 fine for drivers who are caught using a cell phone while driving carelessly. This experienced car accident attorney would have preferred to have seen a law with more teeth in it.
I salute the efforts of Republican Josh Shapiro, a Montgomery County Democrat, who stressed that he wanted to enable police to give a driver a $50 ticket if they were caught chatting on a hand cell phone or sending text messages while driving. However, a majority of his colleagues did not agree. As Representative Shapiro is aware, there have been thousands of accidents that have occurred on Pennsylvania roads due to cell phone usage since 2002. As I have previously blogged studies such as The New England Journal of Medicine has noted that being on the phone while driving makes people four times as likely to crash as those who are simply driving.
I am personally involved in a case at the moment where a gentleman has lost his arm due to the fact that he was a passenger in a vehicle where the driver was sending a text message while operating his vehicle, causing the vehicle to roll over and eject the passenger. Any person can understand that usage of a cell phone while driving causes a cognitive distraction significant enough to degrade the driver’s performance.
The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration states that any distractions can cause a driver to miss key visual and audio cues needed to avoid a crash. Despite all of the evidence maintained by safety agencies, including NHTSA, and despite the evidence of increased fatalities and catastrophic injuries as a result of cell phone usage while operating motor vehicles, I cannot understand how reasonable lawmakers elected by the public could not take the proper and safe step by choosing to ban cell phone use while driving.
I am sure that many of my readers have had close calls with other drivers who were speaking on a cell phone and not paying attention to the rules of the road. It is readily apparent to this writer that the telecommunications and cell phone industry must have a fairly strong lobby in Harrisburg. According to the Center for Public Integrity some $3 million dollars is spent each year by cell phone providers to lobby state lawmakers. The actions of our legislature last week will continue to keep doctors, lawyers, and unfortunately, funeral directors busy.
If you or a loved one has been injures as the result of a car accident, please contact the experienced Philadelphia car accident attorneys of Reiff and Bily at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.
