Fort Lauderdale Car Accident Attorney Blog
The best way to learn about driver’s view of their safety behind the wheel is to ask them. The annual results offer a revealing look into the opinions drivers hold about the leading traffic safety issues of the day. Taken together, these issues are responsible for the vast majority of crashes handled by car accident lawyers from St. Lucie to Fort Lauderdale.
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has issued its 2010 Traffic Safety Culture Index report for the third consecutive year. The information for this report was gathered from May 11th through June 7th via cell phone and landline phone interviews (offering Spanish or English dictation) with 2,000 people ages 16 and older.
Some points of interest found in the report were the following:
-Half the respondents said they have been in a severe crash or knows a friend or family member that has been in a bad crash or killed in a crash.
-Over 50% of the drivers said they don’t feel as safe as they did 5 years ago. This is a 17% increase from last year. The main reason that over 50% said that was due to others distracted driving habits.
-All respondents feel that drinking and driving is very dangerous, and 2 out of 3 support first time DWI offenders getting alcohol ignition interlock devices on their vehicles.
-Over 72% polled said not wearing a seat belt is totally unacceptable. In addition, 66% said that not wearing one should be a primary reason for police to pull vehicles over and issue a ticket. Sadly 10% of respondents offered that they are guilty quite often of not wearing a seat belt.
-Drivers overwhelmingly thought that drowsy driving was totally unacceptable but over 25% of the respondents said they had driven drowsy in the last 30 days.
-Respondents said that texting (96%) or talking on their cell phones (88%) was a serious threat to their personal safety. However 69% of drivers talk on their cell phones while driving and 24% admitted to texting while driving. Of those polled 46% would support a ban on all cell phone use while driving.
-Driving 15 mph over the speed limit on a highway was acceptable to 33% of drivers. However, speeding in a residential area was overwhelmingly unacceptable. 69% of drivers thought having more police monitoring our speed was acceptable.
-Red light running is unacceptable to 93% of drivers polled. But 34% admitted to doing in the past 30 days.
No matter what your concerns for safety are as a driver, you can only control your behavior. Doing your part in driving safely is the first step to safer roadways. You could do worse than making a New Year’s resolution to avoid these poor driving habits in 2011.
If you or someone you love is injured in a car crash in Southern Florida, contact the accident attorneys at Freeman and Mallard in the West Palm Beach area at 800-LAW-CENTERS (800-529-2368).