Distracted Driving Citations

How To Run a Distracted Driving Citation Search

You can find out about a person’s distracted driving traffic tickets by running a driver history report. This report will contain all traffic citations, points, arrests, DUIs and much more, as all this information is public record. This can be obtained directly from the DMV or online through a third party public record resource. The benefit of using a 3rd party online resource to lookup driving related information is all your searches are anonymous and confidential. You can obtain a lot of useful information about a person’s driving history just by entering their first and last name into the search fields above.

Distracted Driving Remains a Common Cause of Motor Vehicle Accidents

One of the most common causes of motor vehicle accidents in the United States is distracted driving. Because of the high incidence of distracted drivers, people who drive, walk, ride a bike or otherwise enter into the public space need to understand and appreciate some vital facts.

Distracted Driving Statistics in the United States

1. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been tracking the rate of distracted driving in the country for some time. The most recent compilation of annual data regarding distracted driving is alarming.
2. Over 2,800 people were killed in distracted driving accidents. This breaks down to seven people per day losing their lives on U.S. roadways because of distracted driving.
3. Of those individuals killed by distracted drivers, the CDC further reports that one in five of those people were not in vehicles themselves. They were pedestrians and bicyclists.
4. Approximately 400,000 people were killed over the course of a year by distracted drivers. Breaking that distracted driver statistic down to a daily rate is disturbingly illustrative. Nearly 1,100 people in the U.S.A. are injured on a daily basis because of distracted drivers.

Three Basic Categories of Distracted Driving

The CDC has categorized distracted driving in three ways:

• Visual
• Manual
• Cognitive

Visual distracted driving involves a driver taking eyes off the road. The stark reality is that taking eyes off the road even for a second or two can prove deadly. Research demonstrates that even when a driver takes eyes of the road for a matter of couple of seconds, upwards to 13 more seconds must pass until that individual’s attention is suitably focused on the roadway and the driving task at hand once more.

Manual distracted driving primarily involves a driver taking his or her hands off of the steering wheel. The fact is that if a roadway hazard presents at the moment a driver takes hands off the wheel, there is going to be an increase in the amount of time that individual has to react to a problem. Seconds matter when responding to sudden motoring emergencies. Indeed, in some instances, a fair argument can be made that second can make the difference between safely responding to a roadway hazard and a potentially life-ending catastrophe.

Cognitive distracted driving is simply defined as a driver taking his or her mind off the road. For example, something and seemingly innocuous as daydreaming can have deadly results if a person drifts off in this manner when behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

A person may be categorized as a distracted driver in more than one way. A driver might be distracted by music playing on the radio, which is cognitive distracted driving. At the same time, a driver might change the station or adjust the volume by hand, which is manual distracted driving. Indeed, that same individual might spend time looking at the radio or entertainment console itself, which in turn would amount to visual distracted driving.

Frequent Specific Forms of Distracted Driving

In addition to categorizing distracted driving in a trio of ways, the CDC has identified certain forms of distracted driving that occur with more frequency among U.S. drivers. These include:

• Talking on a mobile device
• Texting
• Eating
• Drinking
• Talking to a passenger
• Reading a map
• Referring to GPS
• Adjusting a radio or entertainment system
• Using hand sanitizer (something that has started climbing the list in recent months)
• Dealing with a pet moving freely in a motor vehicle

Research indicates that if a person is inclined to engage in a certain type of distracted driving with considerable frequency, that same individual is highly likely to engage in other distractive activities as well when behind the wheel.

How To Avoid Distracted Driving

Perhaps nothing is more astounding about the high rate of deaths and injuries caused each year by distracted drivers is that they were entirely avoidable. Unlike some other types of causes of motor vehicle accidents, distracted driving deaths and injuries simply are losses that did not have to happen. A person injured as a result of a distracted driver needs to take a proactive stance when it comes to making a claim for compensation. At the heart of this proactivity is seeking guidance and representation from a seasoned, tenacious motor vehicle accident lawyer. A typical motor vehicle accident attorney will schedule an initial consultation and case evaluation with an injured person at no cost and with no obligation.