Missouri Plaintiffs Lawyer Starts Program to Target Distracted Driving
Douglas Horn, a Missouri plaintiffs lawyer, thinks that texting while driving has become more dangerous than drinking and driving. Laws that prohibit phone use while driving don’t go far enough, he recently told Kansas City’s WDAF TV, and he’s launched his own driver safety program.
Called Drive By Example, it focuses on education programs, legislation and bringing awareness to the problem.
The television piece cites a study (PDF) by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, State Farm Insurance and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. It found that alcohol-related accidents with teenagers are dropping, but distracted driving has risen and the number of their traffic deaths remain unchanged.
“In my experience a drunk driver, because I’ve handled many of these cases, can manage in many opportunities to somehow brake or take evasive action,” Horn told WDAF TV. “Although they are impaired with a slow reaction time they can manage to do that. A distracted driver who’s looking at their cell phone who’s engaged with whatever they’re doing is at real risk for causing collision.”
