Texting while driving has landed 26-year-old Joseph F. Brito Jr of Pawtucket, RI in Rhode Island Hospital, where he is currently listed in critical condition.
According to police, Brito was driving at a high rate of speed at approximately 3 a.m. Sunday on Route 95 north and lost control of his vehicle, striking a tree.
The initial investigation indicates that speed coupled with driver distraction contributed to the cause of the crash. Texting while driving is just one of the charges filed against Brito.
A report in the Providence Journal states that Brito's car veered into the breakdown lane and struck the shoulder of the road. Brito then lost control of his car, causing the car to skid across three travel lanes, then it struck a Jersey barrier. The car didn't stop there. It continued to skid and then struck a tree. He was airlifted to Rhode Island Hospital.
The police have reported that Brito was not only charged with texting while driving, he was also charged with the operation of an unregistered vehicle, operation of a vehicle without evidence of insurance, failure to wear a seatbelt and failure to maintain control of his vehicle.
Do You Text and Drive? If so, are you aware that...
*Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent. (Source: Carnegie Mellon)
*Nearly 6,000 people died in 2008 in crashes involving a distracted driver, and more than half a million were injured. (NHTSA)
*The younger, inexperienced drivers under 20 years old have the highest proportion of distraction-related fatal crashes.
*Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves. (Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
*Using a cell phone use while driving, whether it’s hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver's reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent. (Source: University of Utah)
Oprah Winfrey declared National No Phone Zone Day on April 30, 2010. It may have stopped a few people from texting that day, but it has to be an on-going, vigilant cause before it starts to slow down the number of senseless accidents. In this case, there was only one injury. If this accident was during daylight hours, many innocent drivers and passengers could have been injured or killed due to the irresponsibility of the driver.
Please stop texting while driving.
Comments
A football stadium...imagine that and all that happens in & around it. Keep that image in you mind when you consider texting & driving. I learned recently that in the average person who chooses to text while driving has their eyes essentially closed for an entire football stadium length at 55 mph - and that's not just the field - that is over 400 yards. I feel bad for this man in this article. Think of him, think of that football stadium and keep your eyes on the road.
Erik Wood
OTTER LLC
OTTERapp.com
Good article Practicing personal injury law in Utah, I see the first-hand effects of what happens when others text and drive. We are treating these cases like drunk driving cases. There will be little to no mercy on someone who permanently injures someone because they texted and drove!
Ron Kramer
Kramer Law Group
ronkramerlaw.com
I hate that video so much. I've seen it before and it just makes me cringe, but it's so real. That could really happen to someone who isn't paying attention to the road. It's scary (even more scary that I will have a teen driver in 3 years).
Thanks for sharing the stats and video.
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