Distracted driving increases in summer, warns Travelers

During the summer, there are not only more people on America’s roads but also more cases of distracted drivers. Louisville residents who are planning to head out on a road trip will want to keep this in mind; that way, they can watch out for drivers who appear to be distracted as well as avoid such negligent behavior themselves.

To raise awareness of distracted driving, the Travelers Institute held its newly launched Every Second Matters™ symposium back in June. It also issued a report that analyzed recent driving trends and provided safe driving tips. The institute used data from a recent TrueMotion study to highlight how prominent the issue is in summer.

The mobile telematics company analyzed sensor data from its distracted driving mobile app, called TrueMotion Family, to know when drivers were looking away from the road. The study involved 8.4 million trips taken by more than 20,000 drivers between January 2017 and May 2018. Researchers found that in the summer, drivers were distracted for 15 minutes out of every hour.

The months of June, July and August were the worst for distracted driving, according to TrueMotion. Incidentally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that these same three months see 29 percent more road deaths compared to the winter months of December, January and February.

Since distracted driving is a form of negligence, anyone who suffers loss due to a distracted driver might be eligible for compensation. Hiring a lawyer who deals in auto accident law may be a good idea, however. The lawyer may be able to have experts obtain a copy of the police report, retrieve the defendant’s cell phone record and reconstruct the accident if necessary. Once the claim is established, the lawyer may negotiate for a settlement out of court that covers vehicle damage, medical expenses and lost wages.