As an accident lawyer, I frequently represent clients who have been injured in car wrecks. The cause of the accident varies from client to client, but more people are coming in after having a run in with a distracted driver. As more people own and use smartphones while driving, the number of these wrecks is increasing. There have been laws passed throughout the country to combat this, most of them aimed at talking or texting on a cell phone while driving. Still, this has not solved the problem. People still use their cell phone and engage in other dangerous activities while on the road.Common distractions include:

• Eating in the car. How many people do you know visit a drive-through and eat on the road? Think about the amount of concentration that eating requires. You have to look down at your food, pick it up, hold it, prevent it from spilling, and still somehow manage to drive at a steady speed, watch for hazards, pay attention to road signals, etc. This is challenging at best and definitely distracting.
• Putting on makeup. Most people do not think about getting ready in the car as an issue, but those who do hair and makeup on the road certainly fall into the distracted category. As an accident lawyer, I know that all it takes is five seconds of looking away, and you will have driven the length of a football field if going 55 miles per hour. Anyone doing makeup while driving on the freeway to work could easily miss changes in traffic patterns and cause an accident.
• Using a cell phone. This is a clear cause of distracted driving, and text messaging has been proven to be particularly dangerous. If you have a teen in the house, it is critical that you warn them of these dangers in order to protect themselves and others.
• Talking to passengers. Whether a driver is reprimanding a young child, being part of an animated conversation about their baseball team, or answering a question, engaging in conversation can also be a distraction.

As an accident lawyer, I know that these are only a few ways people become distracted. An exhaustive list of possible distractions would be much longer.Why does this matter?As a driver, you need to be able to protect yourself. Distracted driving caused 3,154 fatalities in 2013 and 424,000 injuries. It is a serious problem, to say the least. Most people are wary of drunk drivers, and should be, but distracted driving is taking lives and hurting people in record numbers. Protecting yourself and your family requires being more diligent than ever. It is important to watch the road and to pay attention to what other drivers are doing, so you can respond quickly and avoid getting into an accident. It is better to assume that people around you are distracted, watch for signs that they are not paying attention to the road and adjust so you can avoid a collision, rather than be surprised by one.