As a pedestrian in New York City, being aware of your surroundings is crucial to avoiding serious injury, especially because cars, trucks, and buses can come out of nowhere. Unfortunately, the proliferation of personal electronic devices has made many people less safe by making them unaware of what’s happening around them, especially when they are listening to music, talking on the phone, or texting. New research shows definitively that both those activities endanger pedestrians, putting them at greater risk of an accident and lowering their odds of winning a personal injury settlement to compensate them for their pain and suffering.
According to the journal Injury Prevention, the number of people injured or killed when wearing headphones or earbuds has tripled over the past 6 years. In those most of the cases the accident victims were distracted and couldn’t hear danger approaching, thus putting themselves in harm’s way. The New York City pedestrian accidents and wrongful deaths in these cases have often resulted in personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits, but often times personal injury settlements were either reduced or lost due to the fact that the victim was partly culpable for their plight.
The same goes for texting and talking on cellphones. In 2008, over 1,000 pedestrians were admitted to the emergency room after being injured while engaging in those activities. According to a study by Ohio State University, that number doubled from 2006. And while there is little statistical data regarding the correlation between pedestrian accidents and injuries and texting or talking on the phone, common sense suggests that as these activities become more prevalent, so do pedestrian accidents. Our New York City pedestrian accident law firm will always be willing to take on any pedestrian accident case, so if you’ve been injured in a pedestrian accident, contact our New York personal injury lawyers.