Houston Police are investigating a fatal traffic collision Wednesday afternoon in which the driver who died apparently was both speeding and using his cell phone at the time.

Police said a man driving a Ford Taurus on US 290 inbound at Mangum apparently lost control of his vehicle, overcorrected and veered across several traffic lanes, hitting at least two other vehicles in the process.

A pickup truck that his vehicle struck then hit two other vehicles in a chain reaction. The pickup truck’s driver was taken to a hospital in undetermined condition.

Police said the Taurus driver seemed to have been speeding as well as using a cell phone when the collision occurred. They said alcohol did not seem to have been a factor.

Studies show that using a cell phone behind the wheel is as bad as driving while intoxicated. Approximately 5,000 Americans die each year in traffic collisions involving distracted drivers whose attention to the road was diverted by calls or texts while on cell phones.

Texas has no state law banning cell phone use or texting by drivers, unless they are school bus drivers or novice drivers. A state law bans cell phone use while driving in school zones, though school districts are required to post signs to that effect or the law does not apply. Some school districts cannot afford to do that.

However, some Texas municipalities have passed laws making texting by all drivers at all times in all places illegal, including San Antonio and Austin.

Nine states ban all cell phone use by all drivers, and 35 states ban text messaging by all drivers.

Jim S. Adler & Associates urges motorists to hang up and drive. A call or a text cannot be worth a life.

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The way Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sees it, his own agency shares responsibility for a catastrophic bus crash in Virginia Tuesday that killed four innocent people.

LaHood is upset because the DOT agency overseeing truck and bus safety, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, did not stop Sky Express bus line of Charlotte, NC from operating despite alarming safety violations.

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry has vetoed a new bill the Texas Legislature passed to add Texas to the ranks of 32 other states making it illegal to read or send text messages while driving. Perry says government shouldn’t “micromanage” adults’ behavior, and instead education should be emphasized to steer people from the dangerous habit.

It’s been said by scientists that distracted driving is as bad as drunk driving, and statistics would seem to bear this out. As driving distractions continue to mushroom, so do traffic deaths and injuries due to distracted drivers, who could kill up to 6,000 persons on America’s roads and highways this year. The rate of distracted driving deaths, in fact, has doubled in recent years.

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Attention owners of Toyota 2011 Tundras: Some of the trucks have a potentially dangerous glitch. These 2011 Tundras have a rear drive shaft that can break .

Toyota Motor Sales USA estimates that 0.5 percent of its 2011 Tundras have the defect.

The company is recalling 51,000 models. Owners can expect a recall letter in the mail in the next several weeks.
So what’s up with Toyota?

In the last year, the company has had to recall 14 million Toyotas to fix defects. Some were deadly. Faulty floor mats and sticky gas pedals are blamed for fatal accidents caused by cars that accelerated suddenly, reaching high rates of speed as they careened off the road with disastrous results. Another Toyota recall involved a glitch in braking software. Toyota is facing dozens of lawsuits in the United States filed on behalf of victims who were injured or killed in its  vehicles.

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USA Today has some traffic accident news for us: Rural roads are more dangerous than urban roads.

Are Jim S. Adler & Associates’ car crash lawyers on top of this? More than USA Today, it seems.

Jimadler.com ran a car wreck blog post on the same conclusion more than 15 months ago. That’s when we alerted you that rural driving is riskier than more crowded urban driving. And why? (more…)

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In California, it’s against the law to hold a cell phone while driving. Hands-free devices are allowed, but sacrificing a hand from the wheel — and a large chunk of one’s attention from the road  — is forbidden.

Yet Maria Schwarzenegger was photographed yakking by phone as she drove in California last fall, despite a law her husband helped pass. And on Monday, Disney Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus was stopped by police in North Hollywood as she chatted by phone while driving to a salon for a massage.

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In 2009, fewer Americans died in traffic accidents than in any year since 1950, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Vehicle crashes killed 33,808 Americans last year, the lowest total since records began being kept in 1950, when 33,186 perished. That’s also 10 per cent fewer traffic fatalities than in 2008.

But before we celebrate, consider the families of those 33,808 victims. Their loved ones remain a statistic — and a grim one — and they cannot celebrate. And if they can’t, why can we?

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Texas lawmakers know they must act, but how is the big question. Our state leads the nation in alcohol-related traffic deaths, and Dallas County is the nation’s third-worst for per capita drunk driving fatalities. Such tragic distinctions cannot continue.

One huge problem is that many drunk driving fatalities are caused by multiple offenders — people who already have been arrested as a drunk driver, but keep driving drunk anyway. While repeat offenders represent only 20 per cent of those arrested for drunk driving, they are a very dangerous one-fifth. How can they be rehabilitated — or kept from driving?

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