At a time when real progress was being achieved in passenger safety, distracted driving accidents in Wisconsin have reached alarming proportions. In fact, distracted driving accident statistics have worsened all over the country. While many sources of distraction have been around for years, like applying make-up, shaving, reading a map or eating, the widespread use of handheld phones and other electronic devices like navigation systems have created a number of new distractions. The result has been an increase in serious Wisconsin car crashes.
Distracted driving facts:

• While alcohol-related crashes have dropped among teen drivers, distracted driving has become the top cause of fatal teen accidents.
• Drivers using a cell or smart phone are more impaired than drivers intoxicated with 0.08 blood alcohol content.
• Across the country in 2009, an estimated 448,000 people were injured, and 5,474 were killed in distracted driving accidents.
• Distracted driving accidents represent 16 percent of all fatal crashes, and 20 percent of all crashes with injuries in the US.
• Texting while driving increases the risk of a serious crash 23 times as compared to driving without distraction.
• Using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by as much as 37 percent.

The problem of distracted driving in Milwaukee is a serious one. Motorists readily admit that they engage in distracting activities while driving, like using their cell phones, because it is still socially admitted, in a way that drunk driving is not. Most drivers tend to forget that, in an emergency, only a split-second reaction may allow them to avoid a crash. Split-second reactions are seriously delayed when you are sipping hot coffee, looking for an address on your GPS, reading an email or reaching for a CD that fell on the floor.
If you have been injured in a Wisconsin or Illinois distracted driving accident, contact the attorneys of Hupy & Abraham today at 800-800-5676 (toll-free) or 414-223-4800 (local) for a free evaluation of your case, or send us an e-mail with your questions. Hupy & Abraham have law offices in Milwaukee, Madison, Appleton in Wisconsin, and Gurnee and Bloomington in Illinois.