Albuquerque Personal Injury Law Blog

Like most other states, New Mexico has laws that are designed to prevent distracted driving, specifically distracted driving caused by cellphones. Specifically, New Mexico prohibits so-called texting and driving. For purposes of the law, texting also includes checking one's email and just about any Internet use on one's smartphone while driving. It does not, however, prohibit making a traditional phone call.

Most agree that these laws are a good idea and can save lives. However, in this state, the law has certainly not eliminated all cases of distracted driving. In fact, according to a recent report, drivers in New Mexico are still spending up to 18 percent of their time on the road driving distracted by their phones.

A semi-truck driver who was involved in a recent fatal accident in New Mexico has been cited for careless driving in connection with the incident. According to reports, the truck driver involved in the accident was pulled to the side of the road on a major national highway and was facing north. In order to continue traveling north, it would have to cross the lane of oncoming traffic.

The trucker yielded to another large truck that was passing from the opposite direction but apparently did not see smaller pickup that was behind the approach large truck. The driver therefore crashed in to the pickup in a head-on collision. The driver of the pickup died at the scene of the accident, and the passenger of the pickup was injured, although the extent of the injuries was not known.

While a lot of people in the greater Albuquerque area enjoy riding bicycles both in the city and the surrounding beautiful New Mexico countryside, doing so carries risks. As a previous post on this blog discussed, bicyclists face dangers from loose dogs, poorly repaired sidewalks and, especially, cars and other motor vehicles. While of course bicyclists should follow the rules of the road and pay attention, many of these accidents happen despite the fact the bicyclist was being as careful as possible.

On the other hand, these accidents are often still preventable the driver of the vehicle involved or the property who let his or her sidewalk fall in to disrepair or who let his or her animal roam free. It also bears repeating that bicyclists, just by nature, are more vulnerable in accidents because they are on a lightweight vehicle and don't have a lot of protection.

There are a lot people in the greater Albuquerque area who ride bicycles, and they probably understand that with this activity comes certain risks. While one might imagine that the biggest single hazard facing bicyclists is the chance of falling off one's bike, the reality is that the single most common cause of bicycle accidents, at least those which get reported, involves the bicyclist getting struck by a car.

In fact, one survey from a few years back attributed 29 percent of all bicycle accidents to cars. The second most common cause of bicycle accidents was falls, at 17 percent. Significantly, 13 percent of these sorts of accidents involved a road or sidewalk not being in proper repair, and 7 percent involved unspecified collisions. In 4 percent of crashes, a dog either bit or interfered with a bicyclist.