Austin Personal Injury and Car Accident Law Blog

By now, most people are aware that cellphone use while driving is not safe, and while many Texas drivers do put their devices away while driving, some still talk or text on their phones when their attention should be focused solely on the task of driving. In fact, according to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), in 2017, approximately one in five motor vehicle accidents involved distracted drivers. About 90 Texas cities have passed a law prohibiting drivers from using hand-held devices while operating a motor vehicle, but are hands-free options any safer?

According to experts, the brain does not multi-task well, and using a hands-free device, such as Bluetooth, while driving is still not safe because the brain has different areas for processing various tasks. For example, when a driver takes a call, the brain must switch from the area where the complex motor skills required to operate a vehicle are processed to the part that processes speech. Even drivers who use their cellphone while stopped at a red light can increase risk on the road, since the brain needs sufficient time to switch from one task to another.

A new school year has begun in Texas, and families are busy with back-to-school schedules and plans, and goals for the new year. For one Texas family, that agenda was tragically interrupted on a recent morning drive to school that ended in a tragic car accident. A 9-year-old girl had just posed for a first day of school photo and was riding to school with her mother and brother.

The car, a Nissan Sentra, was traveling south on FM225 near Henderson shortly after 7:00 in the morning. A GMC pickup driven by an 18-year-old was heading north and crossed the yellow line into oncoming traffic, colliding with the Sentra. The young girl was thrown from the vehicle, though she had reportedly been wearing a seatbelt.

A new school year is under way in Texas. With the opening of school comes an increase in morning traffic. Increases in traffic can lead to increased stress in drivers that can in turn lead to incidents attributed to road rage or hazardous driving. A recent fatal car accident may have resulted from a road rage incident.

A young man was killed recently when his car was hit from behind. The impact caused the car to flip multiple times. The driver was a 17-year-old male who was about to begin his senior year of high school. A passenger in the young man's car was also injured but his injuries were minor.

A group of friends are out for a good time on a summer evening in Texas. They don't expect to be involved in a catastrophic car accident. They are out creating summer memories. Tragically, the memories created on a recent summer night will not be happy ones.

A group of five people were out in a Chevy Malibu on a recent evening. The driver of a Ford Exhibition lost control of the vehicle and hit the driver side door of the Malibu. The driver of the Malibu died at the scene. The four passengers in the car were all transported to a nearby hospital. Two of the passengers suffered serious bodily injury and the third one was in critical condition.