In 2015 New Hampshire introduced a hands-free law to tackle the amount of distracted driving that keeps occurring.
The law prohibits anyone under 18 years of age from using any electronic device while driving. It bans all other drivers from holding their phones or using them with their fingers. So while you can make and receive calls through a hands-free or Bluetooth system, you cannot touch your phone for things such as calls, emails, text messages, TV, internet or entering routes into the phone’s navigation system.
Yet many people continue to use their phones at the wheel. Perhaps because they do not understand how deeply, and completely cellular phones can distract you. It does so in three ways:
1. Visual distractions
If you are looking at your phone, you are not looking at the road, even if you hold it in front of your face. That means your eyes aren’t on the road where they need to be. Whether someone is driving 65 mph or 35 mph, three or four seconds of inattention can make the difference between safety and disaster.
2. Cognitive distractions
Let’s say someone opens an angry email from a customer on their phone. Are they thinking about the car about to pull out of a side street and turning or the unhappy customer? Even a message from your spouse asking you to stop to pick up carry-out for dinner can send you in a new mental direction and take your mind off the road.
3. Physical distractions
You never see professional car racing drivers hurtling into a corner with one hand on the wheel. That is because you need both hands to turn the wheel the required amount to round a corner or avoid a crash. Anything reducing your ability to grip the wheel makes you less safe, and other drivers doing it also makes you less safe.
If you are injured in a crash, it is crucial to work out what the other driver was doing. Despite these rules being in force for six years, many drivers still ignore them. Discovering what exactly the other driver was doing the moment before the crash could help you get the compensation you deserve.
At Solomon Law Firm we have protocols in place to discover whether a client was injured due to any of the above distractions, including cell phone use.
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