Col. Matt Langer of the Minnesota State Patrol stated in today’s Star Tribune that one in four crashes are caused by texting, eating, entering GPS data or any activity that takes the driver’s eyes off of the road. “Driving 55 miles per hour translates to 90 feet per second, he said, so if you look away for just a moment, you just drove 90 feet without seeing anything” on the road.
The Star Tribune reports that distracted driving contributed to 61 deaths and 198 serious injuries in 2014. The good news is those numbers – which include distractions other than phones – are down from a decade ago, when distracted driving caused 98 deaths and and 427 injuries in 2005.
Trooper Langer said that distracted driving is underreported even today, partly because “we’re not always able to prove what exactly occurred when someone’s behind the wheel”.
Law enforcement officers cited 909 drivers for texting and driving over six days in April, or approximately 150 drivers per day. That number is a three-fold increase from an enforcement period in 2014 which netted only 55 drivers per day.
If you or a loved one have been arrested for a traffic offense or for a Minnesota DWI, please call Minneapolis DWI Lawyer F. T. Sessoms at (612) 344-1505 today. I will be happy to answer all of your questions.