10 Tragic Accidents Caused by Mobile Phones
Published <ABBR class=published title=2009-03-20T14:32:34+0100>March 20, 2009</ABBR> by
Kathryn Vercillo in Uncategorized
There are many
cell phone laws out there across the world which prevent people from using their mobiles phones while driving. Some places have laws that prevent any use of the phone inside the car, others allow only voice calls that are hands-free and some have the baffling law that doesn?t allow voice calls but does allow text messaging while driving. The laws may be confusing but the reason for those laws is clear ? people who use their phones while driving are not responsible drivers and they end up causing a bunch of accidents on the road.
Take a look at ten accidents in recent history that were caused by the use of a mobile phone while driving:
1.
LA Commuter Train Crash. This
horrific train crash that happened in September was the deadliest train crash in the United States in almost two decades and it has been found that text messaging by the train?s crew is at least partially to blame for the crash. It was discovered that the Metrolink engineer who failed to stop the train at a signal had sent or received over forty text messages and made four calls during his shift that day, including one message sent less than half a minute prior to the crash. Although there were many other factors involved in the crash, including reported drug use by crew members, text messaging has been labeled as one of the key reasons that this accident occurred. The crash cost the lives of 25 people and cost over $10 million in damages.
2.
The Case of Lord Ahmed. This man is a member of the House of Lords and holds the distinction of being the first
Muslim life peer for the United Kingdom. He is also someone who only recently got out of jail after he was involved in a
fatal car accident involving not one but two mobile phones. First, there was the man that he hit who was a drunk driver that crashed his own car. He exited the car but then decided to return to the car because he needed to get his mobile phone. While he was doing that, Lord Ahmed was busy in the area sending multiple text messages while driving. Distracted, he didn?t see the man returning to his car to get his mobile phone and he hit and killed the man. He spent a bit of time in jail but ultimately his sentence was changed from ?causing death by dangerous driving? to simply ?dangerous driving? and he is now free.
3.
Going Back for a Mobile Phone. Apparently this problem of going back to get a mobile phone and then ending up in a car accident is neither rare nor new. Back in 2003, there was a man in Austria who managed to
get run over by his own car as a result of needing to go get his mobile phone. He had left the phone inside the house so he exited his car, went in and got it. When he came back, he saw his car rolling down the driveway where he?d left it running. His solution was to throw himself at the car and the result was a series of broken limbs. But at least he had his cell phone to call for help.
4.
Smashing into Stopped Cars. A quick scan through the history of accidents involving cell phones shows that there are a whole series of accidents caused by distracted drivers who slam into cars that are actually stopped. For example, a UK woman recently sent over twenty text messages while driving at 70mph before she
slammed into the car of a woman who was stopped in the street due to a flat tire. The woman was killed.
5.
Driver in Denial. There was a case in 2006 of a
lorry driver who killed a woman while he was driving using his cell phone. The case is comparable to many other cases of truck drivers hitting smaller cars while mis-using their mobile phones on the road. He was distracted while entering a number into his phone, hit a car that was at a complete stop and basically rolled right on to it, crushing the female driver to death and causing her car to light on fire and burn her body. Half a dozen other vehicles were damaged in the accident. What stands out as unique in this case is the fact that the driver immediately denied using the mobile phone and later blamed the accident on his bouts with depression and anxiety.
6.
Death of Five Cheerleaders. Another case where the driver of a large vehicle (this time a tractor trailer) hit a small car and caused a
fatal accident happened back in 2007 in Western New York. A car carrying five cheerleaders who were just celebrating their high school graduation together was hit by a driver who was distracted because he was text messaging on the road. All five girls were killed.
7.
Hit and Run After Hitting 2 Teens. It?s just plain wrong to hit someone with your car and then leave the scene of the crime which is exactly what happened in
this case. Two fifteen-year old best friends were walking down the street when a man distracted by trying to plug in his cell phone plowed his car right into them. He panicked and left the scene of the crime; one of the girls was killed.
8.
2 Separate Accidents, 2 9-Year-Olds Die. Colorado has had some serious problems in the recent past with cell phone car accidents. In the span of just three months there have been
two different incidents in which a nine-year-old child has died after being struck by a car driven by someone who was distracted by a cell phone. In one case a car with three boys in it was hit by a driver on a cell phone. In the other case, a little girl on a bike was hit by a distracted driver. In both cases, there is nothing but carelessness to blame for the children?s deaths.
9.
Mother and Child See Father and Baby Die. Imagine that you are driving along in your car with one of your children while your husband is driving in a separate car with your other child. You?re probably planning to all head back home and make dinner. What happens instead is that your husband is talking on the phone, gets distracted while trying to end the call and ends up
crashing the car, killing both himself and your two-year-old baby. That?s what happened in Abu Dhabi last year and it?s probably pretty safe to assume that the mother is still reeling from the accident.
10.
Surviving Child Fights for Cell Phone Ban.
Jacy Good has become ?the ?face? of a state House effort to ban hand-held cell phone use by drivers and to make text messaging while driving illegal? after she herself survived a horrible car accident caused by a driver who was distracted while using a mobile phone. Her story is just one of those tragic stories that is awfully good for evoking human emotion about issues like these. She had just graduated from college and her parents had picked up her and her belongings to bring her back home. They were on their way home with all of her stuff when the distracted driver hit the car and both parents were killed. Good suffered massive injuries (like a broken pelvis) and has now devoted her life to working on changing cell phone laws.
