Fort Walton Beach Personal Injury Law Blog

Drivers in Florida will soon have more options to combat drunk driving. Volvo has announced that it plans to install technology in its cars that may help prevent crashes caused by drunk driving. The company plans to put the technology in its cars in the early 2020s.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that about 30 Americans die every day in automobile crashes caused by drunk driving. The new technology is designed to reduce the number of accidents caused by drunk driving by preventing accidents from occurring. This is an advance over technology that simply reduces the severity of the accidents.

Florida car accident victims have no warning that their lives are about to change forever. You may be driving down the road one second, and in the next moment, you could find yourself in pain and facing the reality that you could have serious injuries. The moments and days after an accident are often overwhelming, and it is not always immediately clear what you should do next. 

If your accident was the result of the negligent or reckless actions of another person, you could have grounds to move forward with a civil claim. The hard part often involves figuring out who is actually to blame for what happened to you. The issue of liability is not always easy to figure out, but it's an important step if you wish to fight for financial compensation.

The state of Nevada may introduce controversial new technology that can help law enforcement determine whether cell phone usage played a part in motor vehicle accidents. The New York legislature rejected a measure to use the technology in 2017, but the state is also considering it again. The first version of the proposal before the Nevada legislature allowed drivers' licenses to be suspended for 90 days if they would not agree to have their phones checked, but the proposal was amended to require a warrant if a driver refused.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted driving was a factor in 3,450 deaths in 2016. In around 14 percent of cases, cell phones were a distraction. However, many say that the role of cell phones in these crashes is underestimated because they depend on self-reporting. Drivers are often not forthcoming about whether they were using their phone when an accident occurred.

Sleep deprivation has a strong potential to impair drivers in Florida. Traffic safety experts estimate that sleepy drivers contribute to as many as 20 percent of motor vehicle accidents. As part of its young driver education program, the Ford Motor Company has developed a "Sleep Suit" that simulates the effects of sleep deprivation.

Participants in the program also wear goggles that force them to see what happens when drivers experience microsleep. Drowsiness can cause people to lose visual focus on the road even if their eyes are open. Drowsy drivers cannot successfully resist this physiological microsleep response when severely fatigued. In the program, googles progressively block a participant's vision in increments of up to 10 seconds.