Night had just fallen on Highway 319 near Crowley Road as a 53-year-old woman was driving her 2007 Ford Explorer northbound along the highway. She was expecting a normal drive when a southbound Hyundai suddenly crossed the center stripe and ran into her SUV head-on. The woman is now recovering in Archbold Memorial Hospital, and the police say the accident that put her there may have been easily prevented.

The person driving the Hyundai was a 19-year-old man from Tifton. He died on the scene as rescuers worked feverishly to extricate him and the woman driving the Explorer. Upon pulling the teen from his car, police discovered a cell phone sitting on the driver’s seat, which leads them to believe that the phone distracted the 19-year-old as he was driving down the highway.

In the state of Georgia, texting and driving is banned for drivers of all ages, yet many drivers ignore the law and wind up causing deadly crashes. In 2011, it’s estimated that 1.3 million auto collisions were caused by cellphone related distractions, and unfortunately teenage drivers are the most susceptible age group for this type of distraction.

Inexperienced young drivers are already the age group most likely to get into auto accidents, but considering that nearly half of US high schoolers age 16 or older have admitted to texting while driving, that risk is even higher. Experts estimated that people who text and drive are up to 23 times more likely to get into an auto accident than a person who has their attention on the road.

As a community, we need to stand together, spread the word, and make sure there are consequences for the people who ignore the law and drive while distracted. To learn more, keep following our Macon personal injury blog.

This has been a message from the attorneys at the McArthur Law Firm: Fighting for Macon, Georgia with more than 30 years of experience.