In the last few years, technology has been on the rise. Almost every week, there are new gadgets and easier ways to do things, making our world a smaller place to live—with much more electronics. The texting wave is one that has been on the rise. In December of 2009, it was recorded that 286 million people with wireless service had a texting option. In June 2005, only 194 million wireless subscribers had texting.

Not only are people signing up for texting more, but they are sending messages at a higher rate, as well. The amount of texting went up 60% in just one year from 1 trillion texts to 1.6 trillion.

States are Banning Texting & Driving
Taking this texting increase into consideration, many states in the U.S. started to think about the consequences of drivers texting while operating their vehicles. In 2004, the District of Colombia was the first to enact a ban on texting while driving, hoping that the crash percentage would decrease. Thirty states, including California, then followed the leader and started on the process of getting texting banned, as well. Even though these states anticipated a significant decrease in collisions, a study done by the Highway Loss Data Institute revealed otherwise.

Effectiveness of Texting Bans
The study compared four states’ crash data before and after the ban on texting was passed. The research shockingly revealed that the bans did not help as much as people had thought. In fact, in three of the states included in the study, the crashes increased—by 1% in Washington, 9% in Minnesota, and an incredible 12% in California.

Young motorists, ages 18 to 24, are the most likely group to text and drive. In all four of the study states, the crashes increased the most in this age group.

Drivers May Not Be Abiding By the Rules
The purpose of banning texting while driving was to decrease the amount of crashes and to save people from injury and property damage. However, compliance plays an important role. Change only comes when people abide by the rules. Considering the amount of crashes caused by texting, a decrease in collisions would have been seen if drivers would simply obey the law.

This information tells of the looming danger on the road. With some drivers neglecting their duty as a motorist and looking away from the road to text, the risk of a crash is high. Drivers do not always take the safe route and obey the laws. Unfortunately, this increases danger for others on the road.  If you have been the victim of a texting driver, you could be entitled to compensation.

We Are Here to Help
If you or someone you know has been injured in a car accident, you should contact one of our experienced Los Angeles personal injury attorneys at Steinberg Injury Lawyers at (800) 989-6385.

Be sure to order a FREE copy of our controversial book, 7 BIGGEST MISTAKES That Can Ruin Your California Injury Case.