Distracted Driving Responsible For More Accidents Than You Might Think

According to the statistics published by the New York Police Department, there are an average of 625 reported motor vehicle accidents in New York City every day. That number is likely much higher when you factor all the accidents that go unreported. There are many causes for these accidents but speeding, passing red lights and drunk driving are very common. However, the leading cause by far of motor vehicle accidents is distracted drivers. According to the NYPD Motor Vehicle Collisions Report in April 2022 distracted driving contributed to one out of every four accidents. In Brooklyn distracted drivers contributed to almost a third of all accidents.

Most drivers feel they can take their eyes off the road for a couple of seconds. A lot can happen in two seconds. A car traveling at 30 mph can go about 90 feet in 2 seconds, leaving little to no time for a driver to react. Many drivers have a false sense of security while driving and operate their vehicle on a kind of “autopilot”, without ever really paying attention to what they are doing. Many people exit their car after driving and they don’t remember a single thing about the ride they just had because they weren’t paying attention. However, they probably remember what they texted their friend or the email they wrote to their boss and therein lies the problem. This is how accidents occur from distracted drivers.

Maybe you have been one of the unfortunate victims of another driver’s carelessness and had a collision because of it. If you are lucky, you were also a motorist and the accident was simply property damage to your vehicle and through the other driver’s insurance, you were able to repair the damage and it was merely an inconvenience to you. But sometimes you are unlucky and you have sustained a serious injury from the accident. If you are really unlucky, you are a pedestrian in a motor vehicle accident then you can really be in trouble.

According to the Center for Disease Control, more than 7,000 pedestrians were killed on our nation’s roads in crashes involving a motor vehicle in 2020. That’s about one death every 75 minutes. One in six people who died in crashes in 2020 were pedestrians. There were also an estimated 104,000 emergency department visits of pedestrians treated for non-fatal crash-related injuries in 2020. Since distracted driving is the leading cause of motor vehicle accidents, it stands to reason that many of these pedestrians were killed or injured because a driver was too busy doing some mundane task on their phone and an innocent pedestrian paid the price for their disregard of the responsibility they had as a motorist.

Recently, a pedestrian was struck by a distracted motorist in Manhattan and sustained catastrophic injuries their hip and back. After visiting a doctor, they were forced to undergo surgery and had to endure a lengthy physical therapy regimen to recover from the surgery and injuries. Sadly, like many accident victims, the pedestrian will never be physically the same ever again and will deal with the pain and suffering of these injuries for the rest of their life.

In New York State, the “No Fault” laws guarantee that the medical bills for an injured party in a motor vehicle accident are paid in full by the insurance carrier for up to three years after the accident. No Fault can also cover lost wages for up to 26 weeks, but the maximum benefit is only $2000 per month.

But these benefits are often insufficient for the victims of an accident. This pedestrian was the sole provider for a family with three small children, and $2000 a month did not come close the wages that they earned at their employment and what they required to maintain their standard of living in a city like New York. When they tried to negotiate with the insurance company on their own, the company would not offer a settlement and blamed the pedestrian for some fault in the collision. This is when they contacted the law offices of Ross and Hill, which specialize in all types of personal injury cases.

When the personal injury attorneys at Ross and Hill investigated the accident, they found that not only was the motorist at fault for hitting the pedestrian, but found that there had been negligent maintenance of the intersection including faulty lighting contributing to the accident. They were able to receive the maximum compensation from the motorist’s insurance for a sum of $25,000, but because the broken lighting was a major factor in the crash, they were able to recoup $500,000 in damages in a settlement with the city. It was only due to the creativity of the attorneys at Ross and Hill that the injured pedestrian can now focus on the physical healing of their injuries and their family will be taken care of financially while they recover.

If you were in a motor vehicle accident through no fault of your own, whether you were a pedestrian or an occupant of a vehicle, you should consult with an experienced motor vehicle accident attorney as soon as possible to see you can receive compensation for your injuries. When you call Ross and Hill, the best car accident attorneys at their office can consult with you to find out if you have a case against the motorist at fault or other party that may be involved in the cause of the accident and your injuries. Your injuries could entitle you to many thousands of dollars in compensation.