If you’re a parent, you understand that while your children are young, you are responsible for their behavior. Like all Kentucky parents, you have an obligation to keep your children as safe as possible and to provide for their needs; however, you are also supposed to teach them how to behave properly. As they get older, you make sure they understand traffic laws when they are old enough to drive as well as laws concerning alcohol and other criminal offenses.
Once your kids reach a certain age, they become legally responsible for their own choices. Just as you reach a point in your parenting journey when you are no longer legally responsible for your kids, you are also not responsible for the actions of other adults, such as motorists with whom you share the road. If a distracted driver wrecks into your vehicle, causing you injury, you are likely not to blame.
Most driving distractions fall under one of these categories
While there may be little to nothing you can do about another person’s driving behavior, it may help you avoid a collision if you learn as much as possible about distracted driving before getting behind the wheel. The following list shows the three main categories of distraction:
- Manual distractions involve your hands. If a driver is reaching behind the seat, adjusting radio knobs or otherwise has a hand or both hands off the wheel to do something other than steer the vehicle, he or she is manually distracted.
- A cognitive distraction involves the brain and, in particular, the thought process. If you daydream, you lose focused on the task at hand and are thus placing yourself and anyone nearby at risk for injury.
- Visual distractions often play key roles in fatal car accidents as well. If a driver is looking at a GPS or gawking at a roadside scene instead of paying attention to his or her immediate roadway surroundings, it is a recipe for disaster.
You may not be able to tell if a nearby motorist is intoxicated or cognitively impaired. You certainly can’t read someone’s mind to know if he or she is daydreaming while driving. Distracted driving costs thousands of lives every year in Kentucky and throughout the nation. If you survive a distracted driving collision, you may suffer far more than physical injury.
Seeking a full recovery
If you have to take time off work, pay medical bills, get a new car or miss out in the typical pleasantries of your daily life due to your injuries, there is no reason you should bear the full financial burden of the situation. Emotional recovery is just as important as physical and economic recovery. State law allows you to seek legal accountability against any driver whose distraction is proved to have caused you injury.