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New York Times Drawing Attention to Distracted Driving Risks in Police Cruisers, Ambulances

Accident lawyers in California have been closely following the New York Times series on distracted driving, called Driven to Distraction. The NYT has been publishing a series of reports on the risks of such behavior, including cell phone use and text messaging while driving, as well as the most recent piece last week on the risks to motorists from digitized billboards.

Now, the New York Times is focusing its attention on the distractions that emergency response personnel face as they race to respond to a crime scene, crash scene or any other disaster.

As the use of technology in vehicles has advanced, the vehicles that these police officers and paramedics use to respond to emergencies have also become increasingly sophisticated. More and more police cruisers and ambulances are wired to allow these people to perform their jobs quicker and more efficiently. A modern police cruiser is likely to include a dashboard computer, high-frequency radios, sophisticated GPS systems as well as that staple of distracted drivers-the cell phone. Look into to any ambulance, and you’ll find even more advanced and sophisticated use of technology that is meant to make the jobs of these officers quicker, easier and, more importantly, much more precise.

Police officers will tell you that all this technology in their cars allows them to perform their jobs better. Tracking fugitives, communicating with other officers and accessing valuable and important information in a few seconds -all this is possible because police cruisers now come with gadget upon gadget. Police officers use these gadgets to check data like license records, a driver’s past history, suspect data, as well as for communication purposes with dispatchers. One major advantage of having all this technology is the ability of an officer to respond much quicker to call.

Approximately 75% off police cruisers now come with onboard computers. That is an increase of more than 100% over the past decade. Approximately 30% of ambulances are believed to come wired with all this technology.

There isn’t enough information about exactly how much all this technology in these vehicles is contributing to accidents. There have been limited studies done into how using such technology on the go, can impact an officer’s capacity to drive safely. However, there have been numerous instances where injuries and deaths have been caused in accidents involving distracted police officers. Injury lawyers in California as well as safety groups are also alarmed about the fact that even as all this technology has come in, there have been very few efforts made to train police officers to use these.

As the world gets more wired, California accident lawyers can expect more such technologies to crop up, posing a serious risk to drivers. Hopefully, law enforcement agencies and lawmakers will be farsighted enough to understand the dangers caused by too much technology, and take steps to contain these.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of auto accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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