One common myth about distracted driving is that it’s not all that dangerous. People may understand that they should get off of the phone while driving and pay attention to the road, but they decide to take the chance because it doesn’t seem that risky. Even safe drivers do it. Even parents do it with their children in the car. Anyone is susceptible to this myth.
Let’s break that myth right now. Distracted driving — which is more than just using a phone in the car — is inherently very dangerous. There is no acceptable level of risk. You cannot be “good enough” at it that you won’t crash. Every time a driver gets out their phone to take a picture, make a call, read a text or check social media, they increase the odds that they’ll cause an accident.
The statistics back it up. For instance, more than 2,800 people died in these accidents in 2018. And those are just the ones we know about. How many single-car accidents took lives because of distraction, but the only person involved passed away and there was no evidence? How many drivers struck and injured — or killed — other drivers while they were distracted, but then they lied about it after the accident and tried to blame the crash on something else? If almost 3,000 people died in these accidents when there was evidence and the link was clear, the real death toll must be catastrophic.
Certainly, this breaks the myth that distraction isn’t too dangerous, but people are still going to engage in distracted driving. Those who get injured as a result need to know what rights they have.