The study, conducted by the Governors’ Highway Safety Association (GHSA), found that 15 to 30% of all crashes included reports that the driver was distracted. While true numbers are hard to ascertain, the study determined that cell phone use and typing text messages are likely large contributors to those numbers.

Distracted driving occurs when a driver voluntarily takes his or her attention off of the road. It could involve looking down to read a text message, trying to put on make-up using a rear-view mirror, trying to fit a cup of coffee in a cup holder or even a cognitive distraction, like thinking about a big project at work.

Most of those distractions are hard to measure, but the study was able to come up with some data on electronic device use that is troubling. According to the researchers, drivers are distracted from one-quarter to one-half the time they are on the road. One out of every three drivers regularly uses a cell phone while driving and one-eighth of all drivers admit to having been texting while driving.

Maryland is one of 34 states, plus the District of Columbia, that have texting bans in place, and researchers are encouraging more states to follow suit. However, the bans are difficult to enforce and there is no conclusive evidence yet that the bans reduce the number of crashes.

Maryland had a seatbelt compliance rate of 89.6% in 2008, according to the latest report on seatbelt use by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That is nearly 5% higher than the national average of 85%.

According to the CDC, a large part of that may be attributable to the Maryland’s primary seatbelt enforcement laws, which allow police to pull over vehicles for carrying unbelted occupants.

The study found that overall, states with primary seatbelt laws performed better, with more people buckling up, as compared to states with secondary seatbelt laws.

Police are prohibited from stopping a vehicle for a secondary violation, but can issue a citation if they notice a secondary violation in a vehicle that was pulled over for another reason.

The top ten states for seatbelt compliance all had primary seatbelt laws. Oregon had the best rate of compliance with 93.7% of its population wearing seatbelts. This was followed closely by California, which had a 93.2% compliance rate. Maryland came in 9th. The state with the worst seatbelt compliance was North Dakota, where only 59.2% of the population regularly wears a seatbelt.

The CDC noted that it is now the social norm in the U.S. for vehicle occupants to wear their seatbelts. By comparison, in 1982 only 11% of the populace buckled up.

The increased use of seat belts have likely contributed in continuing declines Maryland auto accident injuries, as the CDC has determined that seatbelt use reduces the likelihood of a serious injury in a car accident by about 50%.

There is still room for improvement. The U.S. lags behind a number of European countries in seatbelt use. In France, 98% of occupants buckle up. Sweden, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and the U.K. all report nationwide compliance above 90%. All of those countries have primary seatbelt laws.

Arialdi M. Miniño, a statistician at the U.S. Centers for Disease, Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics, compiled a report that broke down the causes of death for teens from 1999 through 2006. The report was released by CDC last month.

Miniño found that an average of 16,375 teenagers from ages 12 through 19 die each year, on average, nearly half of them from accidents. Two-thirds of those accidental deaths, 35% of the total teen deaths, occurred due to a car crash. The next highest ranking cause of death was homicide.

Fortunately, teen deaths account for only about 1% of fatalities nationwide each year. The numbers indicate that older teen males are three times more likely to die than older teen females, and older teens overall are at a higher risk of death than younger ones.

“Starting at age 12 and ending at 19 years, the death rate among teenage males increases 32 percent on average for every additional year of age,” Miniño found. “For females, on the other hand, the death rate increases on average 19.5 percent for every additional year of age.”

In my experience as a Maryland car accident lawyer, the problem may be compounded by the fact that serious car crashes involving teens often involve a number of people in the same vehicle. The reckless actions of a teen driver can not only pose a risk to their own health, but also may cause personal injury or death for other occupants of the vehicle or for those in other cars on the road.

A new Maryland traffic law will go into effect tomorrow, banning text messaging while driving in an effort to reduce the number of Maryland accidents caused by distracted drivers.

The new law will make it illegal to type or send text messages while operating a motor vehicle. Being caught texting while driving in Maryland will be a misdemeanor, subject to a fine of up to $500. It will also be a primary driving offense, meaning that police will be able to pull people over and fine them if they suspect them of sending text messages.

Going into effect October 1, 2009, the new Maryland law allows sending messages to contact 911, and does not ban talking on the phone while driving. Playing games and using applications are not banned by the law either, and the law does not explicitly address e-mail, using twitter or updating Facebook, but their legality is up for interpretation and engaging in such activities likely carries the same distractions as text messaging.

The law is seen as a victory for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which seeks to have texting-while-driving bans in all 50 states by 2013. The law goes into effect just before AAA’s “Heads Up Driving Week.” from October 5 through October 11, which is designed to bring attention to driving behavior and encouraging distraction-free driving.

A recent study by Virginia Tech has found that truck accidents are 23 times more likely when a commercial driver is sending text messages while driving. The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute looked at a number of different potential distractions for drivers of cars and trucks by adding cameras and instruments to the vehicles of drivers. Above any other distraction, text messaging truck drivers were putting themselves and others at the most risk.

The results were compiled from several driving studies conducted by the institute, and the collected data equaled about six million miles of driving. Heavy vehicle and truck drivers were 23.2 times more likely than a non-distracted driver to have a truck accident if they were texting, 6.7 times as likely to crash while reaching for, or using, an electronic device, and 5.9 times as likely to have an accident while dialing on a cell phone.

Drivers of light vehicles and cars were at much less risk of having a car accident, but still faced a 2.8 times greater risk of crashing while dialing a cell phone than a non-distracted driver and were 1.4 times more likely to crash while reaching for an object and 1.3 times as likely to have an auto accident while talking on the cell phone.

Researchers from the institute said that it was the tasks that drew the drivers’ eyes away from the road ahead of them that were the activities with the highest risk. Sending a text message took a driver’s eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds over a 6-second interval, which equates to driving the length of a football field at 55 mph without looking at the road. The study found that just talking on a cell phone, which does not distract a driver’s eyes from the road, made little difference in the likelihood of an accident.

Automobile accidents are the leading cause of death for young adults and teenagers. According to data collected by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the risk of a car crash for teen drivers between 16 and 19 is four times greater than for older drivers.

Maryland teen drivers may soon be required to wait longer to obtain a driver’s license and further restrictions could be placed on their ability to drive at night. The new bills propose raising the teenagers to get a learner’s permit to 16 years old (it is currently 15 years, 9 months) and require that they wait until they are 16 years, 6 months before they obtain a restricted provisional driver’s license. They would not be permitted to get a full license until their 18th birthday.

The law would also require that teenage drivers in Maryland have their cars off the road before 11 p.m., as opposed to the midnight deadline for driving that is currently in place. The penalties for breaking these rules would also be stiffened.

If these bills are passed and enacted as law, hopefully have a positive impact on the safety of our roads and reduce the number of people who will need the services of our Maryland accident attorneys.

A study performed at the University of Alabama and Harvard Medical School found that the price of gas has a direct impact on the number of fatal traffic crashes each month. Researchers examined fatal traffic accident statistics collected by the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) from 1985 to 2006. Economists extrapolated the link between rising gas prices and decreasing traffic deaths based on data already associated with falling gas prices.

The data indicated that fatalities are reduced by 2.3 percent for every 10% rise in gas prices, and the effects are even more dramatic for teen drivers. According to the Maryland Department of Transportation, State Highway Adminiatration, on average, more than 630 people die each year in fatal Maryland traffic accidents. So that means nearly 15 Maryland accident deaths could be avoided by a 10% increase in gas prices.

The results of the study were presented at a meeting of health economists in North Carolina last month. While the researchers certainly are not suggesting that increasing gas prices is the best way to deal with traffic fatalities, they did find that higher gas prices were much more effective at saving lives than the enactment of other measures, such as lowering the limits of permitted blood alcohol levels and mandatory seat belt laws. However, researchers did find that restrictive license measures lowered road accident fatalities by 24% nationwide for drivers between 15 and 17 years old.

The reality is that high gas prices cause people to drive slower and less often, which common sense indicates will lead to a reduction in the number of serious accidents that could result in death.