Anti-distracted driving laws bring up new issues

Distracted driving isn’t good, and it leads to many accidents in New Jersey every year. Drivers need to pay attention to the road. As a result, new regulations have been set up to combat common distractions. Some of these have come with unintended consequences, though, that could make the roads more dangerous.

For example, many new cars make it impossible for drivers to type into the GPS if the car is moving. The issue with this is that passengers can’t either, which doesn’t make much sense, since passengers don’t have to watch the road. This creates potential issues where people pull over on interstates and busy streets, just so they can change their destinations.

Another example is that there are now laws in many places against texting and driving. People used to hold their phones up high, near the steering wheel, to text and watch the road. Because of these laws, a lot of people keep their phones down near their legs. This takes their eyes off of the road entirely, rather than stopping them from texting.

This isn’t to say that people should text and drive, as it is dangerous. However, this law may actually make it so that people are paying even less attention to what they’re doing than they were before, at least if they are unwilling to give up the practice of texting while they are on the road.

Have you been hurt by a distracted driver, perhaps as a result of these unintended consequences? If so, you need to know what rights you have to go after financial compensation.

Source: Tech Dirt, “New Rules To Block ‘Distracted Driving’ Will Likely Make Things Worse, Not Better,” Mike Masnick, accessed Aug. 13, 2015