Distracted driving includes driving while:
- Texting or talking on a cell phone
- Adjusting music, GPS, etc.
- Eating and drinking
- Looking away from the road at something inside or outside the vehicle
- Talking with passengers
- Daydreaming
Any distraction increases accident risks. And something as simple as just reaching for a moving object in the vehicle causes almost double the risk of an accident. Also, dialing a handheld device makes you 6 times more likely to crash!
So distractions are dangerous for all drivers.
Luckily, new technology trends aim to reduce distracted driving accidents. And this can even affect injury case outcomes too.
With millions of drivers on the road, small distractions compound into significant safety issues. This means that any reduction in distracted driving can save lives.
New Vehicle Safety Technology Solutions
Luckily, car makers are taking notice. Many new safety features help reduce distracted driving risks. These technologies alert drivers about distractions or add automation.
Driver Monitoring Systems
One growing tech area is driver monitoring systems. These watch the driver for signs of distraction. Then they alert the driver to pay attention.
Cameras and sensors track head/eye movements or steering patterns. If the driver looks away too long, an alarm might sound. Or the steering wheel might vibrate as a tactile alert.
Monitoring systems can also detect drowsiness and give a warning about that. This helps prevent distraction-related accidents.
Some systems may even limit vehicle functions during distraction events. For example, they could cut off phone pairing while driving. Or put music on pause when eyes go off-road too long.
Vehicle Assist and Automation
More vehicles today also have “assist” features. These add a level of automated help with basic driving tasks.
For example, lane-keeping assist helps steer within lines. Park assist can parallel park for you. Adaptive cruise uses sensors to help keep pace with traffic flow.
These reduce the need for drivers to manually control every aspect. This lowers the distraction burden and crash risks.
Looking ahead, self-driving vehicles aim to remove human error due to distraction.
Audio Muting and Disabling Video Screens
Many new vehicles from Honda have Driver Distraction Mitigation Systems. One feature automatically mutes radio and music audio when the GPS voice is speaking. This reduces two sounds competing for the driver’s attention.
Honda vehicles also have a Driver Attention Monitor that watches for signs of drowsiness or distraction. It then gives audio and visual warnings to the driver if needed.
Toyota models have started adding options to fully disable back seat video screens while the vehicle is moving. This prevents kids from distracting drivers with noisy games, videos, and more. It also stops drivers from constantly monitoring noisy kids in the rearview mirror.
Blind Spot Assist and Intervention
One common driver distraction is checking blind spots by turning the head. New blind spot monitoring systems help reduce this need.
More advanced systems even actively steer back into the lane if you start drifting into an occupied blind spot. For example, Buick’s Blind Spot Assist gently countersteers you back if it senses a collision risk. Honda’s LaneWatch shows a continuous live camera feed of the blind spot zone in the dashboard screen when you activate a turn signal.
Backup Cameras and Sensor Systems
Backing up is another situation with limited visibility that leads to preventable collisions. Almost all new vehicles now have standard backup cameras that activate rearview displays when in reverse gear. This expands the viewing angle to show objects and kids behind the vehicle that drivers couldn’t see in mirrors before.
Many large vehicles also have backup sensor systems. These use radar or sonar signals to detect objects near the rear bumper that aren’t visible.
Regulation Efforts on Distracted Driving
Beyond technologies that help fix distracted driving, there are rules too. Many states now ban hand-held cell phone use while driving. For teens, restrictions often cover any phone use.
Other regulations limit texting, web browsing, video viewing, and other high-distraction tasks. Fines, demerit points, or license suspensions help enforce these laws. And in case the distraction leads to accidents, the victims can file lawsuits in order to recover compensation for injuries – you can learn more about compensation after an accident by booking a free consultation with a lawyer near you.
Still, not enough drivers comply fully. And enforcement is difficult for police. So technology assists will likely grow in importance over laws alone.
Insurance companies also create incentives targeting distraction. Drivers who activate monitoring features may earn premium discounts. While those caught driving distracted face increased rates.
How Distraction Tech Affects Injury Cases
As these vehicle safety systems aimed at reducing distracted driving behavior continue spreading, personal injury lawyers expect to see shifts in legal claims from crashes. Currently, distracted driving is a common factor cited in seeking damages after accidents.
Plaintiffs may argue the at-fault driver was negligently eating, texting, talking on a phone or otherwise dangerously diverted. Documentation like phone records may be used to demonstrate distraction. Settlements then try to recover medical bills, vehicle repairs, lost wages from missed work and other costs.
However, advanced vehicle safety tech can complicate attempts to prove distraction. Drivers will likely start pointing to sophisticated collision avoidance features as at fault.
For example, maybe automatic emergency braking systems didn’t activate correctly. Or perhaps lane departure technology failed to warn a distracted driver before running off the road. Tech makers could become targets for lawsuits instead of just individual drivers.
These legal defenses putting vehicle safety technology itself on trial will become more common over the next decade. Their viability has yet to face many court judgments.
But it’s reasonable to predict a rise in complicated product liability claims against both tech makers and drivers. Savvy personal injury lawyers will evolve tactics with the changing auto safety landscape.
Thorough crash analysis and investigation continues being crucial for finding all contributory factors to accidents. As safety technology advances, each new vehicle generation has more complex inner workings that could potentially fail and contribute to crashes.
Figuring out if tech systems worked correctly in an accident takes sophisticated forensic skills and engineering expertise beyond just constructing driver timelines. While technology aims to compensate for human error on roads, it also provides new avenues for assigning fault when wrecks still occur.
New Defenses Against Distraction Liability
Drivers do have some defenses against these technologies.
For example, they might allege:
- Alerts were not clear so they did not understand the meaning
- They tried to respond to alerts but could not safely pull over before a crash happened
- Sensors malfunctioned and gave alerts wrongly
- Automation systems like adaptive cruise failed to brake soon enough
But such defenses require proof. Driver logs from assist systems can confirm whether alerts indeed failed. Overall though, tech advances still shrink the viability of driver distraction excuses.
Conclusion
Distracted driving has exploded as a major traffic risk due to rising technology use in cars. However, safety advances like driver monitoring systems and automated assists counter this crisis.
As the capabilities of these technologies grow, distracted driving cases will rely more on vehicle data about driver negligence. And victims can pursue fair claim resolutions more accurately as a result.
But tech tools alone won’t solve the entire issue without drivers focusing first on safe operation. This is because support tools augment this priority rather than replace it.
