The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has released a study linking distracted driving with the increased use of handheld phones for other activities than talking. West Virginia residents should be aware that these other activities are far riskier than talking on the phone because they tend to take a driver's eyes off the road.
What West Virginia drivers can do to avoid drowsiness
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends seven hours of sleep every night. Going with less will only make one drowsy throughout the day, affecting behavior behind the wheel of a car. Yet in a AAA survey, nearly a third of the respondents said that they had been so tired behind the wheel at least one in the preceding 30 days that they were at the point of having drooping eyelids.
Trucker may be behind deadly pile-up in Florida
West Virginia drivers have good reason to be cautious when sharing the road with commercial truckers. At the start of 2019, there was a chain-reaction crash on I-75 near Gainesville, Florida, that police believe was caused when a semi-truck driver moved left out of the right lane and collided with a passenger vehicle, a 2007 Honda sedan.
Truck accidents place extra burdens on victims
The statistics about commercial truck accidents paint a clear picture of heightened risk. Due to the size and weight of large trucks and 18-wheelers in West Virginia, the consequences of a crash can be immense. A collision with a commercial truck typically leaves a car unusable, and the crash victims often experience injuries that require long recovery times and sometimes result in permanent disability.
Dump and ready-mix concrete truck crashes are rising
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has a report out that should be of interest to truck drivers in West Virginia. The trucking industry is plagued with rising accident rates, and it's especially apparent among dump trucks and ready-mix concrete trucks. The report states that serious accidents among these two types of trucks rose 9 and 9.6 percent, respectively, from 2015 to 2016.
