New NHTSA Guidelines for Reducing Accidents from in-Car Distractions

A new National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study has found that motorists may be just as much at risk of accidents from using in in-car devices like navigation devices, as they are from using personal portable electronic communication devices, like cell phones.

The agency recently released its voluntary guidelines for automakers to keep in mind while introducing potentially distracting electronics into a vehicle. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in its study, it found that texting nearly doubled the risk of being involved in an accident.

Manually operating a phone, according to the study, also increased the risk of an accident. But, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that its study found no evidence that making a hands-free call through a voice-activated system increased the risk of an accident.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has concluded from the study that there is probably a disproportionate attention paid to the kind of distractions that occur when a person is using personal devices at the wheel. According to data by the federal agency, between 2006 and 2010, 17% of accidents were caused by distracted drivers.

However an average of just 2% of those accidents were caused by in-car distractions, like navigation devices at the wheel. Less than 5% of those accidents were caused by portable electronic devices, like cell phones.

In response to those findings, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued guidelines that call for a maximum of 30 characters on the text display of a stereo or other kind of cabin electronics displays. It is also calling for manual text entry, non-driving-related videos, certain graphics and images and display text that is based on social media, web based content or text-based advertising to not be available to the motorist while the car is moving.

The Texas car accident lawyers at Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P., Accident & Injury Lawyers represent persons injured in auto accidents across Texas.