Tag Archives: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Perfect timing for National Distracted Driving Awareness Month: A California appeals court has ruled that using a map application on a smartphone is just as much in violation of the state’s distracted driving laws as using the phone to place a call or write a text message. Steven Spriggs, 58, was using his phone’s GPS map looking for a way to avoid a traffic jam in 2012 when he was pulled over by a motorcycle cop and issued a ticket for $160. Spriggs …

“I drive better when I’m high.” Have you ever heard anyone say that? An urban legend has grown up around the idea that while drinking and driving is obviously dangerous and illegal, smoking and driving somehow allows one to skirt DUI laws. There is actually little evidence that smoking pot impairs driving. “Surprisingly, given the alarming results of cognitive studies, most marijuana-intoxicated drivers show only modest impairments on actual road tests,” noted a 2009 National Institutes of Health report on …

An 18-year-old in Massachusetts is sentenced to one year in prison after being convicted of vehicular homicide in a texting-while-driving accident. One in four car accidents caused by phone use Illegal to text and drive in Massachusetts Distracted driving laws vary by state   Deadly Mistake Aaron Deveau was driving in Haverhill, Massachusetts in February 2011 when he crossed over the center line and struck a car driven by Donald Bowley. Bowley died in the hospital 18 days later, while …

This is a guest blog post from Richard P. Console Jr., a New Jersey and Pennsylvania personal injury lawyer. Winter weather is at best inconvenient and at worse life-threatening. Winter does not only mean having to warm up your car before driving. Motorists need to take the proper precautions when driving in winter weather, and they need to make sure their car is ready for the winter roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that you are 36 percent …

The National Transportation Safety Board called for states across the nation to outlaw all cell phone usage for drivers, on top of the complicated web of phone laws already in place in many states. An estimated 1.3 million crashes per year caused by calls or texting Fifteen states still have no state-wide laws against distracted driving Fines vary; tickets can be difficult to fight in court   Safety First Distracted driving laws are becoming more and more widespread, and for …