Las Vegas Distracted Driving Accident Lawyer
According to the Nevada Department of Transportation, fatalities and fatal crashes have generally increased over the past 10 years. Many safety experts believe that the rise in traffic accidents over the last 10 years, after going down every year for the 50 years prior, is due to the rise in smartphones and their use for texting and checking social media while driving. Texting while driving is only one example of distracted driving, though, and there are many ways a driver can get distracted and cause a wreck because they weren’t watching the road or in control of their vehicle when they needed to be. The car accident attorney at Cameron Law can help you get medical care and compensation for your injuries when you’ve been hit by a distracted driver in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Paradise, Spring Valley or surrounding areas. Our firm focuses years of legal experience on helping accident victims hold negligent drivers accountable for their needless and preventable mistakes and the damage they’ve caused. If you or a loved one has been hurt by a distracted driver in Nevada, call our experienced and dedicated Las Vegas distracted driving accident lawyer for a free consultation.
Different Types of Distracted Driving Dangers
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted driving is any activity that diverts one’s attention from driving. Distracted driving has been a problem as long as there have been cars, and technological advances and modern society for the most part have only made the problem worse. Drivers today are prone to engage in all kinds of distracted driving behaviors, including:
- Texting while driving
- Checking their phones for social media updates
- Reading or sending emails or instant messages
- Eating and drinking while driving
- Reading
- Watching videos on their phone
- Programming their GPS navigation while already driving
- Personal Grooming
Distracted driving behaviors can be visual, manual, or cognitive, depending on whether the distraction takes your eyes off the road, your hands off the wheel, or your mind off the task of driving. Any one of these distractions can cause an accident because the driver doesn’t have sufficient control of the vehicle to respond to a sudden traffic slowdown, an object or pedestrian in the road, or any number of other countless situations requiring quick judgment and appropriate reaction. To make matters worse, many distracted driving behaviors involve combinations of visual, manual and cognitive distractions, which increase the level of distraction and the time it takes to regain control of the vehicle and attention to the road.
Nevada Bans the Handheld Use of Cellphones While Driving
Nevada first passed its ban on texting while driving in 2011. This law also prohibits talking on a cellphone while driving and holding the phone at the same time; only hands-free communication is allowed. As the Nevada Department of Transportation notes, even talking or texting hands-free decreases attention and delays reaction time as much as driving drunk and makes one four times as likely to get into a crash.
A person who is cited for violating the hands-free cellphone ban could be considered per se negligent and at fault for causing the crash. Per se negligence applies when someone violates a safety law and ends up causing the harm the law was intended to avoid. When a person is per se negligent, the accident victim doesn’t have to go through the trouble of presenting additional evidence showing the person was at fault.
Even if the driver wasn’t ticketed in the accident, we can still bring in cellphone records, depositions or eyewitness testimony that show the driver was on the phone when the accident happened. Even if not per se negligent, these facts might help show they were not driving as carefully or attentively as they should have been.
Contact Cameron Law Today
If you’ve been injured by a distracted driver or lost a loved one in a fatal car accident caused by a distracted driver, Cameron Law can help you get the care and compensation you need to recover from your injuries to the fullest extent and put your life back in order after another’s negligence has thrown it into turmoil. Contact our experienced Las Vegas distracted driving car accident lawyer today for a free consultation.
