Missouri personal injury attorney Zane T. Cagle of The Cagle Law Firm says legislators need to take the public safety threat of distracted driving seriously and combine several existing bills into a proper law.
St. Louis, MO (PRWEB) February 24, 2012
“We call on Missouri legislators to combine several existing proposals and craft a bill that will properly outlaw distracted driving in our state and increase the safety of our state’s roads and highways,” said Cagle of The Cagle Law Firm, whose St. Louis car accident attorneys provide legal help to victims across eastern Missouri and southern Illinois.
“Distracted driving, especially texting while driving, is exactly the kind of threat to the public safety that our representatives are elected to deal with,” Cagle said. “I’m pleased to see they are getting serious about it.”
The Missouri legislature currently has at least seven distracted driving bills before it. Most bills seek to ban text messaging by all drivers. That would amend an existing law that bans texting by drivers younger than 21 years old. A general distracted driving bill also has been filed.
According to the Columbia Missourian, a Distracted Driving Summit took place in Jefferson City earlier this month. Participants learned that Missouri trails other states in monitoring and dealing with distracted driving. Most states have four or five distracted driving laws.
Missouri is one of 12 states that have one or none, the newspaper said.
Starting this year, the state will collect statistics about distracted driving in motor vehicle accidents. A crash report form used since January discriminates between hand-held devices, hands-free devices, web browsing and more to establish what distracted the driver in a car wreck, according to the newspaper.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that in 2009 (the most recent available statistics), 5,474 people died in distracted driving crashes. An estimated 448,000 were injured. In all, 16 percent of fatal crashes in 2009 involved distracted driving, the NHTSA says.
“We don’t have to wait for more statistics to show us what we already know,” Cagle said. “It’s time for our lawmakers to take action and pass laws that will reduce this public safety threat.”
Cagle said that anyone injured in a collision involving a car, truck or motorcycle, or the loved ones of anyone killed in such an incident, should seek to hold the responsible party accountable.
Anyone injured in a motor vehicle accident in which distracted driving may have been a contributing factor should consult an experienced personal injury attorney to protect their right to recover compensation for their losses, he said.
“When a person is injured because a driver was not paying attention to what they were doing, that is not an accident,” Cagle said. “Distracted driving is a form of negligence. The driver responsible for such a car accident should be held accountable for the damage it causes.”
About The Cagle Law Firm
The Cagle Law Firm is a St. Louis personal injury law firm with an AV-rating by the distinguished Martindale-Hubbell legal directory. The firm serves clients in catastrophic injury cases in St. Louis and the greater St. Louis metropolitan area, including the eastern Missouri and southern Illinois communities of Ballwin, Belleville, Chesterfield, Collinsville, East St. Louis, Edwardsville, Kirkwood, Mehlville, Oakville, University City, Arnold, Columbia, Florissant, O’Fallon, St. Charles, St. Peters and Wildwood. The firm’s practice areas include car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, construction accidents, railroad accidents, birth injuries, premises liability, wrongful death, defective products, workers’ compensation, chemical inhalation and dangerous drugs. To learn more about the Cagle Law Firm, call (800) 635-3302 or use its online contact form.
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Jo E. Cagle
The Cagle Law Firm
(314) 241-1700
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