Personal Injury & Auto Accidents Due to Distracted Driving
George recently sat down for an interview with San Antonio’s Daytime @ Nine to discuss the dangers of texting while driving and how easy it is to be in an accident due to distracted driving. Enjoy the interview, and please do not use your phone while driving. Full transcription below.
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Esteban Solis:
Welcome back to Daytime at Nine. Alright, we all commute every day and you know what summer is just around the corner. Kids are going to be out of school, and you know what that means, lots of people on the roads and freeways and lots of traveling. If something happens you want to know the right person to call and that’s the George Salinas Injury Lawyers.
George, good morning sir, how you doing?
George Salinas:
Good morning, doing well.
Esteban Solis:
Well I’m glad to hear that. Statistics are showing that a lot of people are driving a little reckless these days.
George Salinas:
Yes, we’ve unfortunately seen a spike in accidents and a lot of new technologies that are causing people to be distracted. Traditionally alcohol has been one of the biggest contributors to accidents, to serious accidents, to fatalities. I think last year there was a little under 1,000 deaths on Texas roadways due to drunk driving. But now we have to contend to cell phones and mobile devices and there’s quite a bit of information out there that indicates that it’s a real problem on our roads.
Esteban Solis:
Oh, it is a problem. One of the areas you handle at your law firm is a personal injury. Can you define that? Because I’m sure that includes a broad range.
George Salinas:
Sure, that’s actually the only area we do, personal injury cases, and that encompasses a lot. We handle everything from automobile accidents, ATV accidents, 18-wheeler accidents, work accidents, product accidents, we’ve been involved in a broad range of accidents. Anything where you have someone not using the standard of care they should have been using and as a result injured or killed someone. That’s the type of case we handle. We have seen a spike though in the number of cases involving automobile accidents due to distracted driving. And we’ve [George Salinas Injury Lawyers] been working on public services announcements to draw attention to this problem and help people realize the danger they pose to themselves and to others when they’re using their phones.
Esteban Solis:
What are some tips you can give to our audience to not be distracted when driving?
George Salinas:
Sure, one of the issues we hear a lot about is teenagers who are driving, or learning to drive, using their phones, and using social media while driving. We have gotten a lot of calls recently from victims of those types of accidents. Over this weekend, I received two. One from a former client and one from a new client. They were both involving distracted driving and one of them was a teenager. What parents can do is use apps available, like DriveSmart, Canary, DriveScribe, and install these apps on their child’s phone and monitor the use of their phone while the vehicle is moving. That’s a really important tool. Not only that, but to help their children understand the dangers of distracted driving. There are studies that show reading one text message takes your eyes off the road on an average of 5 seconds, and it takes 3 seconds for an accident to occur once your eyes have left the road. The data shows that reading one text message is basically the equivalent of driving the length of a football field at 55 miles an hour with your eyes off the road. So you multiple that by the number of text messages someone may read from one trip to the other, you can appreciate the danger.
Esteban Solis:
Well, let me give everyone the information to help and the resources they may need. Hopefully you don’t need to call, but if you do, this is the right person to call, obviously, he knows what he’s talking about, George Salinas Injury Lawyers, give him a call at (210) 225-0909. Make sure you make the right call.
