Illinois Injury Law Blog

After her mother was killed by a driver distracted by his cell phone, one 36-year-old Oak Park woman found herself suddenly on a mission, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Her goal: to educate the public that hands-free is simply not safe enough when it comes to cell-phone use while driving. “There is no study out there that shows hands free is safer,” she told the newspaper.

As our Chicago car accident lawyers noted in an earlier post to our Chicago Car Accident Lawyer Blog, despite an alarming increase in fatal car accidents linked to cell phone distraction nationwide, 10 percent of the 8.5 million registered drivers in Illinois admit to regularly using their cell phones while driving.

These days, however, thanks to aggressive nationwide law enforcement, legislative and public education effort, few people would suggest that driving while texting or chatting is a wise choice when behind the wheel. Unfortunately, while most support more restrictive legislation that limits cell phone usage while driving, they think the rules should apply to drivers other than themselves.

With that said, the perception of cell phones as a potentially deadly distraction has become a huge concern for drivers and passengers who, more than ever, feel less safe while driving. In fact, an overwhelming number of respondents to a recent AAA Foundation survey on road safety issues admitted the reason they feel less safe is due to driver distraction caused by cell phone use. Almost 90 percent of those polled said they considered text messaging and emailing a “very serious threat to their personal safety."

Yet the urge to stay connected, even while driving, is a challenge to suppress. Even the young woman who lost her mother admits that the act of getting on her cell phone while driving was a hard habit to break. Yet she persists. These days, when she gets in the car she tucks her cell phone in her purse and out of reach. Making what she calls a potentially life-saving decision.