Palm Desert distracted drivers cause car accidents and the city has taken action to do something about it. Statistics from the Highway Transportation and Safety Agency as well as from the National Insurance Institute confirm that more and more auto accidents and truck accidents are being linked to cell phone use as well as texting while driving. A driver who is actively texting while behind the wheel is just as impaired as a person driving over the legal limit for alcohol content in his or her blood stream.
We have laws in California that make it a citable offense to use a hand held cell phone while driving. It is also illegal to text while driving. The Palm Desert Police Department has reported to the media that it will participate with other law enforcement departments in an attempt to clamp down on these, "distracted" drivers that are causing countless vehicle accidents in the Coachella Valley. Our Palm Desert police officers will be making a conscious effort to find and ticket motorists they see texting or using a hand held cell phone. This campaign will take place during April.
The first ticketed offense for the violations cited above cost $159 and increases to $279 for the next ticket for the same kind of violation. Police agencies in other parts of California are also participating in this attempt to cut back on the number of drivers who think nothing about texting while driving or jabbering on their cell phone without a hands-free device. The campaign will be called," it's not worth it". Hopefully this effort which is long overdue will cut back on the carnage on our roadways. Last spring over 57,000 tickets were issued to California drivers for a combination of texting and hand held cell phone use. In 2012 there were almost 450,000 convictions for these offenses.
At the Law Firm of Barry Regar A Professional Law Corporation, our Palm Springs personal injury attorney reviews countless traffic collision reports written by the California Highway Patrol, the Riverside Sheriff's Office, and the Palm Springs Police Department that record car crash facts that often appear to be related to a cell phone. It is usually quite difficult for the investigating police officer to know whether or not a cell phone usage was a factor in causing the auto accident. It is easy to smell alcohol on the breath of a driver who evidently caused a Palm Desert car crash; but without a witness to the cell phone use or texting, the officer most often can't determine that there was a cell phone involved in causing the vehicle crash.
If you or a family member has been a personal injury victim caused by another driver, let the lawyers at this firm investigate your accident to discover if you were injured because of the other driver's negligence caused by unlawful cell phone use. Even if the police report is written in a way finding you at fault, we may be able to prove the other driver was texting or using a cell phone when the accident occurred.
Contact us now for a free consultation. Don't give up just because the police report finds you at fault if you know that you were not negligent. We can often find the evidence you need to win your case.