Albuquerque, New Mexico, law enforcement officials, legislators and other concerned citizens have paid a lot of attention to the dangerous of texting and driving of late, and it is no surprise that they are. After all, taking one’s eyes off the road, even for a split second, to make a call or send a text can cause serious and even fatal car accidents.
However, according to a study that was published recently, cell phone use and texting and driving are not the most common cause of fatal distracted driving accidents. In fact, they only account for 14 percent of these types of accidents.
The report identified “daydreaming” as the most common distraction that factored in to fatal accidents, with slightly over 60 percent of fatal distracted driving accidents being attributed to it. While daydreaming is by its nature a nebulous term, it includes almost automatic “drifting off” behavior that some drivers engage in when they get behind the wheel just by second nature.
Other common causes of fatal distracted driving accidents included eating or smoking behind the wheel. A driver’s “rubbernecking” the wreckage of another accident also made it on to the report’s list. Interestingly, another common distraction was a driver’s speaking to another passenger in the car at the time of the accident.
The lesson in this report is that while texting and driving is very dangerous, so are a lot of other types of distracted driving. New Mexico drivers are responsible for paying attention to the road both physically and mentally. This means keeping one’s eyes on the road, one’s mind on driving and one’s hands on the steering wheel.
When a New Mexico accident victim suffers injuries at the hands of a distracted driver, they may be eligible to receive compensation through a personal injury lawsuit.