Distracted Driving The Cause Of Missouri Bus Crash Last Year

December 13, 2011
The dangers of distracted driving were made clear by the case of a Missouri teen who was killed in an car accident last year. KSDK 5 News reported that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident investigation determined the 19-year-old driver was distracted by 11 text messages in the 11 minutes prior to causing a crash that killed him and another student, and left 38 others injured.
Deborah Hersman, Chairman of the NTSB, stated yesterday that phone records made it clear that the young man driving the pickup was manually, cognitively, and visually distracted at the time of the accident due to the fact he had sent six text messages in received five messages in the moments before he rear-ended a tractor-trailer. The crash set off a chain reaction of events, in which, a school bus rear-ended the pickup truck and another school bus smashed into the first one.
The American Journal of Public Health mentioned in a recent article that studies show a dramatic rise in the danger texting poses behind the wheel. In fact, there has been a 28 percent increase in fatalities that stem from texting while driving from 2005 to 2008.
The Missouri Auto Accident Attorneys with Cofman Townsley advise drivers not use their cell phones at all while behind the wheel. This is the best way to ensure that you are not a hazard to yourself or others on the road.