IMPAIRED, DISTRACTED DRIVING MAIN CAUSES OF I-10 ACCIDENTS

Impaired driving and distracted driving are two of the main causes of accidents on the I-10 roadway. We expect other drivers to follow traffic laws and drive safely. When they don’t, they can unintentionally injure someone seriously, or worse, fatally.

EFFECTS OF IMPAIRED DRIVING

According to a news article by KATC-TV in Lafayette, aside from construction, there was an increase in accidents along I-10 in 2017. Some of these accidents resulted from the construction itself, but others stemmed from drunk and impaired drivers and other factors.

In a study conducted by ValuePenguin, I-10 ranked fourth in the nation for the highest frequency of an accident involving a drunk driver. It also is considered to be one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in the United States. Researchers used “Accident” data from 2011 until 2015 the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for their rankings(NHTSA).

The 2017 County Health Rankings also reported that 33% of driving deaths in Louisiana had alcohol involvement. Although drunk-driving fatalities have declined over the past three decades, it still claims thousands of lives every year. The NHTSA identifies alcohol as a substance that reduces the function of the brain, impairing thinking, reasoning and muscle coordination. An individual can not operate a vehicle safely without these abilities.

Alcohol level is measured by the weight of the alcohol in a certain volume of blood, known as Blood Alcohol Concentration, or BAC. A breathalyzer, a device that measures the amount of alcohol in a driver’s breath, or a blood test, is used to measure BAC. Crash risk increases rapidly at a BAC of .08 grams of alcohol per deciliter of blood (g/dL). It’s illegal in all 50 States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to drive with a BAC of .08 or higher. However, a small amount of alcohol also can affect driving ability.

In a 2016 news story by WWL-TV in New Orleans, Louisiana State Police said most of the crashes they’ve noticed, both on and off I-10, are because of impaired and distracted drivers. Distractions not only leave drivers hurt, but also those helping injured drivers.

WHAT IS DISTRACTED DRIVING?

According to the NHTSA, distracted driving is any activity that diverts attention from driving, including talking or texting on your phone, eating and drinking, talking to people in your vehicle, fiddling with the stereo, entertainment or navigation system—anything that takes your attention away from the task of safe driving. However, texting (sending or reading a text) is the most alarming reaction.

An individual’s full attention must be on the task of driving in order to drive safely. Any non-driving activity an individual engages in is a potential distraction and increases crash risk. Louisiana ranked worst in the nation for distracted driving in the Everdrive Safe Driving Report for 2016-2017. Everdrive, a safe-driving app developed by EverQuote, reported that when it came to cell phone use behind the wheel Louisiana had 43% of drives containing at least one distracted driving event.

NEGLIGENT DRIVER ACCIDENT LAWSUIT

Head-on collisions, rear-end collisions, rollover accidents and T-bone/side-impact accidents can result from impaired driving and distracted driving. If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident on I-10 or other roadway in Louisiana, our car accident lawyers can help you bring a lawsuit against the negligent driver’s insurance company. You may be able to recover compensation for your car accident injuries, medical bills, pain and suffering, and more.