At RK&L, our car accident lawyers regularly represent Buffalo residents who have suffered serious injuries due to distracted driving. As we recognize April as National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, it's important to understand that while most people immediately think of texting behind the wheel, distracted driving encompasses a much broader range of dangerous behaviors that remove a driver's attention from the road.

What is Distracted Driving?

Distracted driving occurs when a driver engages in any activity that diverts their attention from the primary task of operating a vehicle safely. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) classifies distractions into three main categories:

Visual Distractions: Taking your eyes off the road, such as looking at a GPS device, checking a child in the backseat, or rubbernecking at an accident scene.

Manual Distractions: Taking your hands off the wheel, including eating, drinking, adjusting radio controls, or reaching for objects in the vehicle.

Cognitive Distractions: Taking your mind off driving, such as having intense conversations, daydreaming, or being preoccupied with personal problems or work issues.

The most dangerous distractions, like texting while driving, involve all three types simultaneously – taking your eyes off the road, hands off the wheel, and mind off driving.

The Dangers of Distracted Driving

Our car accident lawyers have witnessed firsthand how momentary distractions behind the wheel can lead to devastating, life-altering consequences for Buffalo drivers and innocent victims.

• Delayed Reaction Time: Even a brief distraction of just 5 seconds while traveling at highway speeds means covering the length of a football field essentially blindfolded, drastically reducing your ability to respond to sudden traffic changes.
• Cognitive Impairment: Using a phone while driving, even hands-free, causes a level of cognitive distraction that impairs driving ability comparable to having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit for intoxication.
• Increased Crash Risk: Drivers engaged with electronic devices are 4-6 times more likely to be involved in a collision than attentive drivers, with texting increasing crash probability by up to 23 times compared to focused driving.
• Divided Attention Failure: The human brain cannot effectively multitask between attention-demanding activities, meaning that attending to a distraction inevitably reduces the mental resources available for safe vehicle operation.
• Reduced Peripheral Awareness: Distracted drivers experience significant narrowing of their visual field, often missing critical objects, pedestrians, or changes in traffic patterns at the edges of their vision.
• Lane Position Errors: Driver distraction frequently leads to unintentional lane drifting, improper following distances, and failure to check blind spots, creating dangerous situations for all nearby vehicles.
• Missed Traffic Signals: Distracted drivers regularly fail to notice traffic signals, stop signs, yield indicators, or warning signs, leading to intersection violations that cause particularly severe crash types.

Our Buffalo car accident lawyers urge all drivers to recognize these serious dangers and commit to distraction-free driving, as the potential consequences of checking a text or email while behind the wheel can irreversibly change multiple lives in a split second.

Common Types of Distracted Driving

Our car accident lawyers regularly encounter cases where specific distracting behaviors have led to serious crashes throughout Buffalo and Western New York.

• Mobile Phone Usage: Texting, calling, scrolling social media, or using navigation apps while driving diverts visual attention from the road, manual control from the steering wheel, and cognitive focus from driving conditions.
• In-Vehicle Technology Distractions: Adjusting entertainment systems, climate controls, or vehicle settings requires drivers to take their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel, significantly increasing collision risk.
• Eating and Drinking: Consuming food or beverages while driving occupies at least one hand and often requires looking away from traffic, creating a dangerous combination of visual and manual distraction.
• Passenger Interactions: Turning to speak with passengers, mediating children's disputes, or responding to pets in the vehicle diverts crucial attention from the driving environment and delayed reaction time to road hazards.
• External Distractions: Focusing on billboards, accident scenes, roadside activities, or scenic views pulls driver attention from their primary responsibility of safe vehicle operation.
• Grooming Activities: Applying makeup, fixing hair, shaving, or other personal care tasks behind the wheel introduces complex manual and visual distractions that substantially increase crash probability.
• Reaching for Objects: Searching for items in a purse, glove compartment, back seat, or floor requires drivers to remove hands from proper driving position and eyes from the roadway.
• Mental Distractions: Daydreaming, worrying about personal problems, or becoming emotionally upset while driving reduces cognitive awareness of traffic conditions even when eyes remain on the road.

At RK&L, our Buffalo car accident lawyers have seen how these distracted driving behaviors regularly cause devastating injuries to innocent victims, and we are committed to holding negligent drivers accountable for their dangerous choices.

How To Prevent Distracted Driving

As car accident lawyers committed to reducing roadway injuries in Buffalo, we encourage all drivers to adopt these effective strategies to eliminate dangerous distractions while driving.

• Use Do Not Disturb Mode: Activate your smartphone's driving mode or "Do Not Disturb While Driving" feature before starting your journey to automatically silence incoming calls, texts, and notifications until you reach your destination.
• Prepare Before Departing: Set your GPS destination, adjust climate controls, select your music playlist, secure loose items, and attend to personal needs before putting your vehicle in motion to minimize distractions while driving.
• Secure Children and Pets: Properly restrain children in appropriate car seats and keep pets in secure carriers or harnesses to prevent distracting movements that could take your attention from the road.
• Designate a "Co-Pilot": Ask adult passengers to handle navigation, communication, climate control adjustments, and other potential distractions so you can maintain full focus on safe driving.
• Pull Over Safely: If you must address an urgent matter like an important call or text, find a safe location to pull over completely rather than attempting to multitask while driving.
• Store Devices Out of Reach: Place your phone and other electronic devices in the glove compartment, center console, or back seat to remove the temptation to check them while driving.
• Utilize Voice Commands: If your vehicle offers voice-activated technology for essential functions, learn these commands to minimize manual and visual distractions while driving.
• Avoid Complex Conversations: Postpone emotionally charged or intellectually demanding conversations until after your journey, as these cognitive distractions significantly impair driving performance even with hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.

New York Laws on Distracted Driving

Our car accident lawyers help Buffalo clients understand New York's strict legal framework designed to combat the dangerous epidemic of distracted driving.

• Primary Enforcement Law: New York's distracted driving laws allow police officers to stop and ticket drivers solely for using handheld electronic devices, without needing to observe any other traffic violation.
• Handheld Device Prohibition: State law forbids drivers from holding and using portable electronic devices while operating a vehicle, including talking on a handheld phone, texting, emailing, playing games, or viewing/capturing images.
• Graduated Penalty System: First-time distracted driving offenders face fines of $50-$200, with subsequent violations within 18 months increasing to $250 for second offenses and up to $450 for third or subsequent violations.
• Driver Violation Points: Each distracted driving conviction adds 5 points to a driver's license record, potentially leading to increased insurance premiums and bringing them closer to license suspension.
• Probationary and Junior Driver Consequences: Novice and young drivers caught using electronic devices while driving face harsher penalties, including a mandatory 120-day license suspension for first offenses and potentially a one-year revocation for subsequent violations.
• Commercial Driver Regulations: Commercial vehicle operators face additional federal penalties for distracted driving, including potential disqualification from commercial driving for multiple violations.
• Limited Exceptions: The law permits limited use of electronic devices when contacting emergency services, when legally parked or stopped, or when using hands-free technology.

Our Buffalo car accident lawyers understand how to investigate potential violations of these distracted driving laws following a collision, using this evidence to strengthen liability claims against negligent drivers who cause injuries while illegally using electronic devices.

The Alarming Statistics on Distracted Driving

Our car accident lawyers have examined the shocking data that reveals the true scope and danger of distracted driving behaviors on roadways nationwide.

• Fatal Consequences: Distracted driving claims approximately 3,000 lives annually in the United States, with thousands more suffering serious, life-altering injuries that our Buffalo legal team regularly encounters.
• Texting Dangers: A driver sending or reading a text message takes their eyes off the road for an average of 5 seconds, effectively traveling the length of a football field blindfolded when driving at highway speeds.
• Increased Crash Risk: Drivers who use handheld devices while operating a vehicle are 4 times more likely to be involved in injury-producing crashes than attentive drivers focused on the road.
• Young Driver Vulnerability: Drivers under age 20 represent the largest proportion of distracted drivers involved in fatal crashes, with nearly 10% of all teen driver fatalities involving distraction.
• Delayed Reaction Time: Using a cell phone while driving, even hands-free, delays a driver's reaction time as much as having a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent, the legal limit for intoxication.
• Multitasking Myth: Contrary to popular belief, the human brain cannot effectively perform multiple attention-demanding tasks simultaneously, making "safe multitasking" while driving a dangerous misconception.
• Daytime Danger: The majority of distracted driving crashes occur during daylight hours, with weekday afternoons showing particularly high rates of device-related driver distraction.

Common Car Accidents Caused By Distracted Driving

Our car accident lawyers frequently represent Buffalo victims injured in specific collision types that are strongly associated with driver distraction.

• Rear-End Collisions: Distracted drivers fail to notice slowing or stopped traffic ahead, resulting in often-preventable rear-end crashes that cause whiplash, head injuries, and back damage to innocent motorists.
• Intersection Crashes: Drivers engaged with phones or other distractions miss crucial traffic signals or fail to properly yield right-of-way, leading to dangerous T-bone and broadside collisions at Buffalo intersections.
• Lane Departure Accidents: Distracted motorists unintentionally drift from their proper lane, causing sideswipe collisions with adjacent vehicles or head-on crashes with oncoming traffic in particularly severe cases.
• Pedestrian and Cyclist Impacts: Drivers focused on distractions rather than their surroundings often fail to notice vulnerable road users in crosswalks or bike lanes, resulting in devastating injuries to unprotected individuals.
• Fixed Object Collisions: Vehicles operated by distracted drivers frequently leave the roadway and strike trees, utility poles, barriers, or other stationary objects, causing serious injuries even in single-vehicle accidents.
• Work Zone Incidents: Construction areas require heightened attention, but distracted drivers often miss warning signs, lane shifts, or workers directing traffic, leading to particularly dangerous collisions in these already-hazardous environments.
• Low-Speed Parking Lot Crashes: Even in parking areas with lower speeds, distracted drivers cause significant property damage and injuries when they fail to notice pedestrians, shopping carts, or other vehicles while maneuvering.

Compensation You May Be Entitled To If Injured By a Distracted Driver

Our car accident lawyers work diligently to secure all forms of compensation available to Buffalo residents who have suffered harm due to a driver's dangerous decision to text, call, or engage in other distractions.

• Medical Expense Reimbursement: Coverage for emergency treatment, hospitalization, surgeries, medications, physical therapy, chiropractic care, and any future medical needs resulting from injuries caused by the distracted driver.
• Lost Income Recovery: Compensation for wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, and other earnings lost while recovering from your injuries, including future income if your ability to work has been permanently affected.
• Pain and Suffering Damages: Monetary recognition for the physical pain, discomfort, and reduced quality of life you've experienced due to injuries caused by a distracted driver's negligence.
• Emotional Distress Compensation: Financial recovery for psychological impacts like anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, sleep disturbances, or other mental health effects stemming from the traumatic accident.
• Property Damage Payment: Reimbursement for repairs to your vehicle or replacement value if it was totaled, along with compensation for personal property damaged in the collision.
• Loss of Consortium Claims: Damages available to your spouse or partner for loss of companionship, affection, support, and relationship benefits following serious injuries caused by distracted driving.
• Punitive Damages: In cases involving particularly reckless distracted driving behavior, additional compensation may be awarded specifically to punish the at-fault driver and deter similar conduct.

The Buffalo car accident lawyers at RK&L conduct thorough assessments of each client's case to identify and document all applicable damages, ensuring distracted driving victims receive comprehensive compensation that truly reflects the full impact of their injuries on their lives and financial security.

How Our Car Accident Lawyers Prove Distracted Driving Caused Your Injuries

When representing clients injured by distracted drivers, our Buffalo legal team employs various strategies to establish negligence:

• Cell Phone Records: We can subpoena phone records to determine if the driver was using their device at the time of the crash.
• Witness Testimony: Statements from other motorists, passengers, or pedestrians who observed the driver's distracted behavior before the accident.
• Video Evidence: Traffic cameras, dashcam footage, or security camera recordings that may have captured the driver's actions.
• Vehicle Data: Modern vehicles often record data about driver actions immediately preceding a collision.
• Admission of Guilt: Sometimes drivers acknowledge their distracted behavior to police or others at the accident scene.

How RK&L Can Help

Our car accident lawyers have extensive experience representing Buffalo residents injured by distracted drivers. We understand the devastating impact these preventable crashes can have on victims and their families. When you work with RK&L, we will:

• Conduct a thorough investigation of your accident to gather evidence of distracted driving
• Consult with accident reconstruction professionals when necessary
• Handle all communications with insurance companies
• Calculate the full extent of your current and future damages
• Negotiate aggressively for a fair settlement
• Prepare your case for trial if a reasonable settlement cannot be reached

Injured by a Distracted Driver? We Can Help

If you've been harmed by someone who chose to text, call, or engage in other distractions while driving, contact RK&L today for a free consultation with our experienced Buffalo car accident lawyers who will fight to secure the compensation you deserve.