3 Ways That Distracted Drivers Cause Accidents

It only takes a split second for an auto accident to occur. If you were driving safely along your daily commute when another driver unexpectedly hit you from behind or side-swiped your car, you may wonder if that driver wasn't paying attention. The reality is that about 3,000 people die every year in car accidents caused by distracted drivers, and thousands more are seriously injured. Distracted driving is an example of negligence behind the wheel, meaning you likely have grounds to file a lawsuit against the driver who hit you if you can prove that they were distracted.

Three Types of Distractions

If you hire an auto accident attorney to investigate your accident, they may look for evidence that the other driver was distracted visually, manually, or cognitively. All three take a driver's attention from the road, meaning they are less likely to respond to obstacles in time to avoid a crash.

Visual Distractions

Every driver owes a duty of care to other drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians on the road. Violating that duty of care, such as by looking away from the road entirely, represents negligence and could be convincing evidence in a personal injury lawsuit. Your attorney may investigate whether the other driver was visually distracted just before the crash to determine if looking away from the road caused the accident.

Some common examples of visual distractions include "rubbernecking," or looking at an accident scene outside the vehicle, as well as looking down at the car's dashboard to adjust the radio or climate control. Drivers who turn their heads away from the road to talk to their passengers or reaching for fallen objects could also be guilty of negligence.

Manual Distractions

If the driver who caused your accident took one or both hands off the wheel, this is another example of negligence. They might have been applying makeup, eating, drinking, trying to control a pet or child in the back seat, or reaching for their phone. Manual distractions are likely to cause car accidents because if a driver doesn't have full control of their steering wheel, they may not be able to avoid colliding with an obstacle in the road.

Cognitive Distractions

This type of distraction is often hardest for a personal injury attorney to prove. If the driver that hit you was simply daydreaming or thinking about work, there might be little evidence that they were not paying attention in the moments before the accident. However, other types of cognitive distractions such as talking to a passenger or using a cell phone are more likely to have evidence like witness statements and phone records.

If the driver who hit you was distracted just before the collision, that can be a very important factor in the compensation that you're able to claim in your lawsuit. An auto accident attorney can guide you through the process.

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