Distracted Driving Results in Three Dead – Austin Attorney Brooks Schuelke

Austin, TX (Law Firm Newswire) May 10, 2016 – Distracted driving caused the death of three teenagers on their way home from a holiday.

Three teenagers lost their lives when the car they were riding in suddenly swerved into the path of a tractor-trailer. The car’s driver, the sole survivor of the grisly accident, was taken to a local hospital in critical condition. The three killed were a 17-year-old girl, and her friends Brianna Johnson, 19, and Brittanie Johnson, 18. The girls were members of sports teams at two local schools.

Driver Shelby Coleman, 18, was accessing her cellphone GPS just prior to the accident. In the instant it took to check the screen to see where they were heading, and make sure they were on the right track to get home to Houston, the crash occurred.

The volleyball club director, Stephanie Rouse, said she always told her players to drive without distractions. “I tell them you don’t need to have a phone in your hand [to] text or [use the] GPS while you’re driving.” Three promising, young women with hopes and dreams for the future are dead because of the persistent presence of distracting electronics, easily accessed while a driver is behind the wheel.

“There are more than 100,000 collisions in our state every year that involve distracted driving,” said Brooks Schuelke, an Austin car accident attorney with Perlmutter & Schuelke, PLLC. According to TxDOT, 38 percent of Texas drivers admitted in 2015 they talked on cellphones while driving, and 21.2 percent indicated they sent or read messages and/or emails while driving.

Distracted driving is such a major issue across the country that April was designated National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. In Texas, the state plans to continue to promote their TALK. TEXT. CRASH. campaign. “Although the campaign refers to texting, distracted driving can be any one of a number of actions a driver takes while behind the wheel,” added Schuelke.

Distracted driving may include, but not be limited to, the following:

· Checking email
· Checking Twitter
· Posting to Facebook
· Using any other social media such as Pinterest, SnapChat, Foursquare
· Reading
· Eating
· Watching a video
· Programming a navigation system
· Adjusting internal car entertainment systems such as, CD player, radio, MP3 player

“There is no conversation in the world, or other e-activity performed behind the wheel of a vehicle, that takes precedence over the lives of passengers. Keep your eyes and attention on the road — period,” said Schuelke.

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