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NHTSA: American Drivers are Negligent

Breit Drescher and Imprevento is a Norfolk, Virginia injury law firm that offers legal assistance to those who have been injured in car accidents in the Norfolk and Virginia Beach area. Our attorneys have decades of experience in helping injury victims get fair settlements and judgments for their injuries. If you or a loved one has been injured in an auto accident in Tidewater, Norfolk, or Virginia Beach, contact the law offices of Breit, Drescher and Imprevento for a free case assessment today.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently engaged the help of the Gallup poll people to question 4,010 drivers who were 16 and older. They were asking these subjects to answer honestly about their driving habits. The results were not encouraging.

The question isn’t necessarily “Which unsafe driving habits do Americans engage in?” as much as it is “Which unsafe driving habits do Americans not engage in?”

Americans are changing radio stations, talking to passengers, looking for CDs or messing with their iPods, talking on the cellphone, text messaging, putting on makeup or even using wireless internet hookups while driving. (If you happen to be reading this article while you are behind the wheel of a moving car, PULL OVER AND TURN OFF THE COMPUTER. This article will still be here when you safely reach your destination.)

What this means to you is that it is becoming increasingly apparent that car accidents these days don’t just happen as much as they are “caused.” If you got hit by another driver, the odds are that it happened because the other guy was otherwise engaged instead of keeping track of the road.

Maybe the other driver was one of the 81% who talks to passengers while driving.

Maybe the other driver was one of the 66% who fiddles around on the radio, or wants to make sure that he has the right playlist going on his iPod.

Or was it one of the 49% that likes to eat or drink on the road? Maybe they spilled hot coffee on themselves while they were making a lane change. Or did you get sideswiped by one of the 25% of drivers that have no problems talking on cell phones while driving?

If you have been injured by one of these drivers, you probably don’t really care what they were doing when they hit you. You probably just want to heal and be able to get back to work and provide for your family as quickly as possible. But maybe it is in your best interests to figure out what the other driver was doing, mainly because you have to wonder what the outcome would have been if the other driver hadn’t been on the phone, or fiddling with his iPod, or dipping his fries in ketchup while he was making that lane change.

As attorneys that help the injured of Norfolk, Virginia Beach and the whole Tidewater area, we take great interest in the habits of the other drivers, because often this is exactly the reason that our clients find themselves in the hospital, or unable to go back to work. And it’s in the best interests of the insurance companies to keep you from finding out anything about the dangerous practices of their drivers. In fact, one of the reasons that they offer you a check so quickly is that they don’t want to give you any time to consider the reasons for the accident. They don’t want you to think about how the driver on their policy was doing everything but keeping their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel.

Breit, Drescher and Improvento have made a career out of asking the questions that insurance companies don’t want you to think about. We don’t just take it for granted that the insurance companies are going to do the right thing. We know from experience that they won’t. And having the right questions answered can be the difference between receiving a fair amount of compensation and getting barely enough to keep the wolves at bay. Contact our Norfolk, Virginia law offices for a free legal consultation today.

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