Use Cell Phone at Red Light? CA Court Says Don't Do It

Posted by Catherine Fleming on May 18, 2012

Late last year, a California appeals court spoke out against cell phone use while driving.  Yes!cell phone distracted driving.jpg, that means even when you've stopped at a red light.

Like in WA, CA drivers cannot talk on a non hands free phone when driving. Mr. Nelson was sitting at a stop light and flipped open his cell phone to make a call. Little did he realize that a cop had pulled up right next to him. As soon as Mr. Nelson realized this, he put the phone down. Ultimately, the cop ticketed Mr. Nelson. But Nelson argued that he shouldn't have gotten the ticket since the light hadn't even turned green before he stopped using his phone. The CA appellate court says, sorry Nelson, you lose. You can't hold a phone even when the light is red.

Starting last June in Washington State, police could pull over drivers just for holding a wireless devise while driving. New drivers with instruction permits or intermediate licenses aren't even allowed to use wireless devices at all, except in emergencies.

As mentioned on the WA DOL website, if you're driving on the freeway, you can travel more than the length of a football field in the time it takes to read a short text messgae or dial a number. 

Some quick facts about cell phone use while driving.

- 6,000 people -- equal to the total citizens of Pierce County's City of Steilacoom, were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2008.

- 500,000 people were injured in 2008 because of distracted driving. 

- A driver talking on a cell phone is as impaired as a driver with a 0.08 blood alcohol level.

- A driver texting is as impaired as a driver with a 0.16 blood-alcohol level. That's twice the legal limit.

- Drivers talking on cell phones are half a second slower to hit the brakes in emergencies and miss more than half the visual cues seen by attentive drivers.

Make it a policy to just keep your hands off your phone when you're in the car. Please don't be tempted to text/call someone on your cell while driving. You might just prevent a serious car accident/injury.

Too lazy to use your turn signals? Think again...

Posted by Catherine Fleming on May 02, 2012

I admit it. Sometimes I switch lanes without turning on my signal. Why? Well, I look around and ! Drivers & Turn Signals.jpg see that no one is behind me, so why bother. But reading about a new study from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) opened my eyes. Turn signals matter, so keep that habit of using them even if you think no one is around.

As reported by an MSNBC article, neglect in using turn signals accounts for a whopping 2 million accidents each year. That's far worse than the numbers for distracted driving (950K accidents per year). The SEA study indicates that 48$ of drivers either don't ever use their turn signals or fail to turn them off after turning/switching lanes. 

SKWC attorneys represent clients injured or killed as the result of serious car crashes that involve failure to use a turn signal when changing lanes or turning. Save yourself the distinct possibility of getting into an accident. Make it a habit to always use your turn signals and remember to turn them off, after you've used them.