Recent Texting and Driving Ad Highlights the Dangers

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It is no secret anymore that texting and driving can be extremely dangerous. Highway billboards, TV commercials, and various other media highlight the dangers, advising drivers to put down their phones when behind the wheel. Some may wonder why texting and driving is still so prevalent, given the significant amount of injuries and fatalities each year as a result?

According to Distraction.gov, a U.S. government website dedicated to providing information on distracted driving, 660,000 drivers across the country are using a cell phone or other electronic device at any given moment, which likely contributed to the 3,360 deaths and 421,000 injuries suffered in 2011 due to distracted driving.

It is quite possible that the message has not been conveyed strongly enough for drivers to take it to heart. Hopefully, a recent texting and driving ad shown to moviegoers in Hong Kong will have a positive impact on distracted drivers throughout the world.

Ad Shown Before Movie Times Text with Car Crash on Screen

As the theatregoers sat down, the lights dimmed, and a subjective view of a driver starting a car appeared on screen. The driver began to travel down a forest road across beautiful scenery.

Partway through the video, all individuals present received a text message from the movie theater, which was equipped with a location-based broadcaster, allowing it to send a mass text to everyone at the same time. The audience looked down at their phones en masse; and at precisely this moment the car onscreen swerved off the road and collided with a tree. The scene then faded to dark, and included a text stating the importance of not texting while driving.

Since then, this texting and driving ad, sponsored by Volkswagen, has gone global on the internet.

Why is texting and driving so dangerous?

Ideally, this “don’t text and drive” message will strike at the heart of those who view it, resulting in fewer drivers choosing to text while drive. Yet some drivers may still ignore the texting and driving ad and send and check phone messages when driving, ignoring the danger.

These dangers cannot be overstated, though. Data from Distraction.gov cites texting is by far the most alarming distraction, since it requires visual, manual, and cognitive attention from the driver.

How exactly does it do this? By grabbing the phone, the driver sacrifices manual attention; by looking at the text, the driver’s visual attention is diverted; and by thinking about the information presented in the message, the driver places his or her manual attention on the text, instead of on the road in front of the car.

In some cases, a driver may not believe that quickly checking a text provides enough time for this diverted attention to result in an accident. These drivers should consider, then, that checking a text takes about five seconds on average, and that a car traveling at 55 miles per hour could travel 100 yards in this distance. Put simply, looking at a message from a friend could send the car across a football field with no eyes on the road.

Have you been injured by a distracted driver?

At Max Meyers Law, PLLC, we encourage everyone to put away the phones before getting behind the wheel of a car. We also understand, however, that not everyone will do this, and some may be injured as a result.

If you have been injured in a crash with a distracted driver, please reach out to us today for an initial consultation. We are committed to helping you recover compensation for your injuries. You can contact us by calling 425-399-7000.

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Max is a Kirkland personal injury attorney handling cases in Seattle, King County & surrounding in WA State.