Cell Phone Addiction Can Be Deadly

Cell phones have become so much a part of our lives that for many, using a cell phone has actually become an addiction. Many people never turn their cell phone off, using the alarm to wake up, checking the weather or traffic report, keeping track of appointments and special dates, taking pictures, and managing their social life. The true dangers come when a “cell phone addict” is texting and driving.

A small town in Missouri is mourning the death of a teen that died in an auto accident one week after receiving her driver’s license. Police believe texting while driving is the blame; the teen’s cell phone showed an incomplete text waiting to be sent.

Savannah Nash got the best birthday present a 16-year-old could ask for – a new car! That was May 8. On May 9, she got her driver’s license, and by May 16 was taking her first solo drive – a trip to the grocery store to purchase items for the family dinner. Barely 100 yards from her driveway, Savannah crossed the southbound lanes of a Missouri highway and was broadsided by a tractor trailer. Savannah’s family does not believe the teen was texting behind the wheel. A family member said Savannah was texting before she got in her car; the family believes she may simply have put her phone aside with the unfinished text when she got behind the wheel. An investigation is ongoing.

While there is no indication that Savannah was a “cell phone addict” nor is there confirmation whether she was texting when the accident occurred, it is no secret that texting or talking on a cell phone while driving takes one’s eyes and attention off the road and has been proven to increase the risk of an accident, yet many people continue to do it. Some say they have they have done it a dozen times and nothing has ever gone wrong. Are you one of them? How long will fate be on your side?

Why must we need an endless supply of communication readily at our fingertips? We hear a sound or feel a vibration that someone is trying to connect with us and we can’t resist no matter what else we may be doing at the time. While new software applications can disable a phone when a vehicle is moving, isn’t that just using technology to fight technology?

It is time to stop the addiction! Is that phone call or text as important as keeping yourself, and others, safe? If you are guilty of driver distractions, when will you kick the habit?

Mark Bello has thirty-six years experience as a trial lawyer and fourteen years as an underwriter and situational analyst in the lawsuit funding industry. He is the owner and founder of Lawsuit Financial Corporation which helps provide cash flow solutions and consulting when necessities of life litigation funding is needed by a plaintiff involved in pending, personal injury, litigation. Bello is a Justice Pac member of the American Association for Justice, Sustaining and Justice Pac member of the Michigan Association for Justice, Member of Public Justice, Public Citizen, the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Michigan and the Injury Board.