Using a cell phone isn’t the only thing that could distract you

After years of driving, you may not even think twice about the number of mental and physical operations you perform while driving. It takes experience and skill to keep track of everything going on around you while maintaining control of what essentially becomes a deadly weapon once you turn on the ignition.

It’s easy to forget that you are driving a machine at rates of speed that could cause serious or deadly devastation in an accident. Complacency is the enemy of many drivers since it lulls them into a false sense of security. When this happens, they could engage in any number of distracting behaviors that diminish the ability to safely drive the vehicle.

It’s more than just cell phone use

Of course, cell phones are incredibly distracting. These handheld computers, which also make phone calls and send text messages, command a great deal of many people’s attention, even as they drive. However, they are not the only things that take your mind, hands and eyes off the road. Before cell phones and other electronic gadgets, other distractions dominated the driving world, and they have not disappeared:

• Insects, pets and other objects moving around the vehicle as you drive

• Daydreaming

• Passengers and what they are doing while you drive

• Looking at something outside the vehicle, such as billboards

• Adjusting the radio or the environmental controls

• Drinking

• Eating

• Smoking

• Reaching for something on the seats, the floor

Any of these actions could take your attention off the road. While you aren’t paying adequate attention, the landscape and traffic pattern around your vehicle could change dramatically. You often hear drivers who cause accidents say they “only looked away for a couple of seconds.” What some people forget is that it only takes a couple of seconds for a catastrophe to occur.

If you became the victim of a driver who allowed something other than paying attention to driving to divert them from the task at hand, it could be due to one of the above behaviors, or something else not listed. The circumstances that led to the accident could help prove that the other driver’s negligence caused your injuries and the inevitable financial losses that followed. Successfully proving negligence in a New York civil court could provide you with the compensation you need and deserve.