Florida Car Accident Attorney Jason Chalik Speaks About Distracted Driving Awareness Month

Miami, FL (Law Firm Newswire) May 4, 2016 – April was Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and experts say that driving while distracted is a major cause of car accidents in Florida and throughout the country. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, there were nearly 46,000 crashes caused by distracted driving in the state last year.

“There are far too many accidents caused by distracted driving,” said Jason Chalik, a Florida car accident attorney with Chalik & Chalik Injury Lawyers. “Anyone who is injured or loses a loved one in a car accident through the fault of another driver should consult with an attorney.”

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has designated April as a time to increase awareness of distracted driving. According to Major Warren Fast of the FHP, cell phone use is a significant cause of distraction, but drivers’ attention can be affected by eating, shaving or applying makeup, or carrying on a conversation with a passenger.

According to traffic safety experts, texting while driving is particularly dangerous because it distracts drivers in three different ways: visually, manually and cognitively. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, sending a text message while driving is six times more dangerous than driving drunk. A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study found that texting while driving created an accident risk 23 times as great as driving while not distracted.

In Florida, texting and driving is a secondary violation, which means that a police officer must observe a person committing some other violation in order to pull them over and give them a ticket for texting.

Safety experts point out that even legal activities such as carrying on a conversation with a passenger or using a hands-free device can still cause a distraction, because such activities take the driver’s cognitive attention away from the road.

Learn more at http://www.chaliklaw.com/. Chalik & Chalik Injury Lawyers 28 W Flagler St, #1000 Miami, FL 33130 Phone: (305) 944-2035

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