Distracted Truck Driver

Truck Accident Lawyers – Distracted driving is a Leading Cause of Motor Vehicle and Trucking Deaths and Injuries

Imagine closing your eyes while driving the distance of a football field at highway speeds. Sounds extremely dangerous, doesn’t it? But that’s exactly what happens if you take your eyes off the road for just 5 seconds at 55 miles per hour. At an interstate speed of 75 mph, you would have travelled just short of 2 football fields (183.3 yards) in 5 seconds.

This is happening every day on our roadways. Between the hours of 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., according to a study done by Cambridge Mobile Telematics, in 2022 drivers were found to be distracted for an average of 1:56 minutes for every driving hour. How many “football fields” do you suppose a distracted truck driver covers in 1:56 minutes while not paying attention to the roadway. The statistics are sobering. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that in the past several years, approximately 3,000 people have lost their lives in collisions caused by distracted drivers.

More relevant is a recent study by Forbes which found that in North Dakota, eight deaths, or 8.33% of all fatal crashes, were caused by distracted driving and in Minnesota, twenty-five deaths, or 6.78% of all fatal crashes, were caused by distracted driving. Distracted driving by a truck or automobile driver is not just caused by cell phone use, it can also be caused by daydreaming, fiddling with a radio, looking for objects in the vehicle, and reading while driving, among other things.

These are just the statistics for deaths due to distracted driving. At the Vogel Law Firm, we have found distracted driver collisions result in far more catastrophic injuries, dismemberments, brain injuries, broken bones, spinal injuries, and burns than deaths. According to the NHTSA, nationally 324,652 people were injured in distracted driving crashes in 2020 alone.

Distracted driving and the mayhem it can cause is not restricted to just motor vehicle collisions. Our North Dakota and Minnesota offices have also represented numerous individuals who were injured and families who lost a loved one when hit or killed by cars and trucks operated by distracted operators. Most of these cases involve collisions with people operating a motorcycle or people who were walking on a roadway or riding a bike. The NHTSA calculates that in any given year, approximately 587 pedestrian and bicycle operators are killed in the United States because of distracted drivers.

Commercial and semi-truck operators are under a greater duty of care while operating a truck on the roadway and while operation of a cell phone is prohibited while driving, at the Vogel Law firm our personal injury and wrongful death cases have shown commercial operators often disregard this safety training. Our experience is supported by the national statistics.

According to The National Safety Council, in 2021, large trucks were involved in 5,700 fatal crashes, killing 5,788 people. This is a 47% increase in fatalities over the preceding 10 years. In 2021, large trucks were also involved in 117,300 crashes injuring 155,000 people. Of this number, 71% of the injuries predictably involved occupants of the “other vehicle.”

Schedule A Free Consultation Today

If you have been injured or a family member has been killed because of a distracted commercial or truck driver, our Personal Injury Attorneys are here to help you every step of the way. We will aggressively prosecute your truck accident, car accident, or other personal injury case. Get started with our firm today. Call our office at 701-237-6983 or contact us online at www.vogellaw.com to schedule a consultation.