Most safety campaigns to address distracted driving focus on texting or other smartphone use, almost disregarding other equally dangerous distractions. Drivers in Dallas County who thought they could multitask while driving are not alone. Safety authorities estimate as many as 660,000 drivers nationwide drive while distracted.

It may come as a surprise, but the human brain is able to process only a limited amount of information at a time. The primary task is to focus on the road and safe driving, and adding other activities distracts the brain from driving, forcing it to process other information.

Most common distractions

You'd likely have your work cut out to try to find an adult under age 75 in Texas who doesn't own a cell phone. Even people in older age groups often use cell phones nowadays. How attached are you to your phone? No matter what your current age happens to be, do you think you're at risk for developing an addiction to your cell phone? Addiction by any name, whether substance abuse, gambling or other, can be tough to overcome and can negatively affect lives.

Addiction often has a ripple effect, meaning it doesn't just affect your own life if you are addicted to something but has a way of causing adverse issues in the lives of the people around you as well. For instance, cell phone addicts often use their phones while driving, even if it's illegal in Texas or another state. This is a serious driving distraction that often leads to collision, which can have disastrous results for those involved.

Issues that often accompany cell phone addiction

An incident of road rage can change your life in a moment. You may not even realize what you did to make the other driver so angry. In fact, you may not have even been involved in the altercation but simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nevertheless, you and perhaps your passengers suffered injuries in the ensuing accident.

Road rage is at the root of many accidents, resulting in injury and death. A driver who cannot control his or her temper may use a vehicle as a weapon, but many road rage incidents involve firearms and other weapons. Aggressive driving and causing physical injury are criminal offenses in Texas, and this information may prove helpful if you are considering seeking compensation for your injuries through the civil courts.

Dangerous behavior

Though patience is a virtue, you may wonder whether many drivers on Texas roads have heard of it. You likely see people speeding well above the speed limit and carrying out other dangerous driving maneuvers on a daily basis. It may seem as if everyone has to get to a particular destination at that exact moment or are already late.

Of course, these unsafe driving habits can easily put you and other drivers at risk of a car accident. Some people may think they drive well enough to avoid a collision, but crashes can happen to anyone at any moment.

The issue of tailgating

If you are like most other people in the Dallas area and beyond, you purchased at least one holiday gift online. Shopping from the comfort and safety of your own home has become the norm in recent years. The convenience of not having to battle the crowds, find a parking space and drive from store to store makes this form of shopping unbeatable.

However, online retailers probably never intended for people to shop their stores while driving. Unfortunately, that seemed to happen quite a bit this year, and some of it resulted in accidents. If you were the victim of an online shopper behind the wheel, you may be contemplating your legal options as the new year begins.

The breakdown

If a motor vehicle accident left you with serious injuries, you may wonder what your options are. Whether the other driver had no insurance, not enough insurance or an insurance provider that is balking at paying, you may be watching your medical bills and other expenses mounting while you try to figure out what to do next.

The thought of hiring an attorney to deal with the insurance companies and potentially guide you through a personal injury claim may have crossed your mind, but you may have dismissed the idea as something you could never afford. What you may not realize is that a personal injury attorney may help you reach your goals of obtaining compensation, and the cost may pleasantly surprise you.

How can a lawyer help?

If you are like other conscientious drivers across Texas, you would never consider getting behind the wheel of your vehicle after drinking enough to experience a buzz or drunk. You know that the effects of alcohol could impair your judgement and otherwise make you lose control of your faculties, and present a danger to yourself and others on the road.

Would you give the same consideration to safe driving if you were sleep-deprived? If you cannot honestly answer this question affirmatively, don't despair — you aren't alone. Most people don't consider drowsy driving as dangerous as drunk driving. Sadly, many who have made that same assessment caused accidents involving serious or fatal injuries.

Equating fatigue with drunk driving

You've probably noticed dangerous distracted drivers while on a Texas road. Perhaps you've looked over to see a driver texting while on the interstate, or maybe you saw a person eating a cheeseburger while behind the wheel. From putting on make-up to looking at Facebook, distracted driving is a serious safety concern. In fact, it remains one of the leading causes of car accidents across the country.

Most car accidents are the result of reckless or negligent actions. Human error, from distraction to driving too fast, needlessly places innocent people at risk of an accident every day. In response to this threat, automakers have started included certain safety features in many newer vehicles. It is possible that these technological advances could eventually lead to safer roads and fewer car accidents.

What could keep you safe?

Commercial trucks play an important role in our economy. They are large and heavy because they transport goods and products across the country, but they are also capable of inflicting serious damage in the event of an accident. Because they are so much bigger and heavier that other types of vehicles, they are capable of inflicting grave damage.

If you are the victim of a truck accident in Texas, you know first hand how destructive accidents involving semitrailers can be. You may also know how overwhelming the aftermath is, and how difficult it can be to pick up the pieces and move forward. As a truck accident victim, you may have grounds to pursue financial compensation through a civil claim filed against the liable party.

Common questions about these accidents

Navigating a Texas roadway by motor vehicle can definitely be a stressful experience. Whether you're behind the wheel or riding as a passenger, if there's a distracted driver nearby or an intoxicated or reckless motorist, your immediate risk for injury skyrockets. It's not uncommon for people to go into shock after sudden collisions occur.

If you were to suffer life-threatening injuries in a motor vehicle accident, what happens directly thereafter would be largely out of your control. In fact, you might not even be conscious when rescuers transport you to the nearest trauma center. If you are coherent at the accident scene, there are several things to keep in mind regarding post-accident decisions.

Avoid legal complications

After a car accident, especially one that leaves you seriously injured, it can feel like a whirlwind. You may have questions you wanted to ask, information you wanted to gather or provide, and just want to know what happened in general. Though you may not have immediately been able to obtain this information due to going to the hospital, obtaining it as soon as possible may be in your best interests.

Typically, after a serious crash, police officers come to the scene. Their presence can be immensely useful for various reasons, among which is gathering information for a police report. A police report can contain facts about the accident that may prove useful to you if you choose to pursue a personal injury claim against the driver considered at fault for the incident, even if the report itself cannot be evidence.

What goes into a police report?

Most people, on at least one occasion, have gotten behind the wheel while in a hurry. When a person is running late, rushing to get somewhere or simply being inattentive, it can result in that person driving at dangerously high speeds. If you have ever done this yourself, you may be wondering what could be so bad about driving a little fast.

Speeding is a common type of reckless driving. Speed limits are there for a reason, and driving over these limits is not only against the law, it can increase the chance of an accident. Many people underestimate the significant danger associated with speeding. However, if you are a victim of an accident caused by a speeding Texas driver, you know firsthand how dangerous this type of behavior can be.

A greater danger than you may think

As a Texas driver, you are aware that large trucks are everywhere on the road. Semitrailers are a critical part of the economy, and they are responsible for transporting goods and products from one place to another. Due to their heavy weight and the sheer size of these vehicles, you also know they can cause significant damage when involved in an accident.

In order to make the roads safer and decrease the chance of an accident, there are both state and federal laws in place that determine how these vehicles operate. There are strict guidelines for the number of consecutive hours truckers can drive and how frequently they must rest. There is some question regarding the efficacy of these regulations and whether they actually make the roads safer for motorists.

Do current regulations hurt or help?

Workplace injuries are a sad fact of life. Even in industries or positions that carry no inherent danger, you never know when an accident will occur or if conditions will place you at risk of a work-related illness. In most states in the U.S., business owners carry workers' compensation insurance to cover medical bills and other expenses related to workplace accidents.

Texas is a rare exception in that it is the only state that does not require its employers to offer workers' compensation coverage. When you accepted the position at your job, your employer should have informed you whether he or she carries workers' compensation insurance. If your employer is a non-subscriber, you may wonder about your options when you get hurt on the job.

What should I do if I get hurt?

Most newer vehicles have the ability to connect to people's phones so that they can use them hands-free while driving without having to take eyes off the road and hand's off the wheel. It is supposed to help reduce distracted driving accidents specifically related to cellphone use. The truth is, hands-free devices are not a distracted driving cure-all. In fact, this technology comes with its own issues that also cause distracted driving.

Hands-on cellphone use for texting and talking while driving or stopped in traffic is illegal in the state of Texas. However, several cities have hands-free device laws in place to allow that you to use this feature within city limits.

Allowing drivers to use hands-free technology may have had some effect on the number of cellphone-related auto accidents, but not as strong as an effect as lawmakers would have hoped. Why? Cognitive distractions still affect people utilizing their phones even in a hands-free way.

When a driver is doing anything other than keeping his or her eyes on the road, it is distracted driving. When you think about distracted driving, you may think about someone texting or reading an email, but those are not the only things that can take a driver's attention. One of the most common and most dangerous types of distracted driving in Texas does not involve using a phone at all.

Eating while driving may not seem dangerous. In fact, most people have probably gone through a drive-thru to grab coffee and a pastry before work or picked up a burger to eat on the way home. Eating on-the-go is part of the American culture, yet the convenience may not be worth the risk. Eating while driving is a type of distracted driving, and it is quite dangerous.

Understanding the dangers

Let's be honest. Teenagers lack the experience to safely multitask while driving. For this reason, their parents often warn them not to use their cell phones, eat or do anything other than drive and pay attention to the road when they drive.

The question is whether Texas parents warn their teens about the dangers of having passengers their age in the vehicle. Did you know that with one peer passenger in the vehicle, the risk of an accident doubles? If a teenager has two or more peers along for the ride, the risk triples — and this is without adding any additional distractions.

Teens may not always follow the rules

You may have a number of concerns while on the road or while your loved ones are on the road. You certainly want to stay safe and never want to learn that a loved one has suffered injuries in an accident. Of course, you likely also know that a choice made by another person could easily result in a crash that has life-altering consequences.

In particular, a person making the decision to drink and drive could result in you or a loved one suffering serious or even fatal injuries. These dangerous drivers plague Texas roadways, and unfortunately, the odds are high that you or a family member will share the road with a drunk driver at some point.

Signs of a drunk driver

As you pass vehicles on the road, do you ever wonder what the lives of those inside them are like? Are they happy or sad, rich or poor or single or married? Maybe you have wondered these things, or maybe you focus on more practical questions like did that driver got enough sleep last night? Is he or she on a cell phone? Is he or she too busy looking at a GPS system to notice you?

You have probably heard that there are more and more drowsy and distracted drivers on the roadways, so you wonder these things. However, you can't forget about the impaired drivers. Whether it's 7a.m. or 7 p.m., some drivers continue to feed their addictions — and some of them drive vehicles that weigh up to 80,000 pounds and dwarf your car in size. Yes, we are talking about big rigs, and the fact that many of their drivers suffer from addictions make them a danger on the roadways.

The problem could be worse than you think

It happens to everyone. You are running late trying to get to your destination when a car pulls out in front of you and slows to a crawl. You can feel your blood pressure rising, and it takes all your self-control to keep from using your own vehicle to push the other one out of your way. Instead, you take a deep breath and try to keep calm. Eventually, the other driver turns off, and you go on your way.

You may have control of your emotions while driving, but not every driver is able to contain the rage that builds up when faced with these inconveniences. When a driver acts on those impulses, your life may be in danger.

Aggression or road rage?