Rather than risk your own life – and the lives of the innocent, law-abiding drivers around you – try one of our attorneys’ suggested #SafeSelfies
What’s dumber than taking a selfie while you’re driving, i.e., taking a #DrivingSelfie?
Seriously. Not much.
In the pantheon of irresponsible, reckless and potentially deadly things to do, taking your eyes and attention off the road long enough to take a #DrivingSelfie is way high at the top. Certainly, taking a #Driving Selfie is a sure-fire way to be a Darwin Award winner.
But, even worse than that, the #selfie-obsessed driver is putting all the rest of us, innocent, law-abiding (i.e., non-#selfie-taking) drivers at risk of being involved in a serious injury and or fatal car accident. As I wrote in my December 3, 2013, blog post, “Driving selfies: Are people dumb enough to take photos of themselves while driving?”:
“Yes, there are people dumb enough to be taking pictures of themselves while they are driving their car at high speeds on the road.”
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“I created this legal blog that focuses on issues I see every day as a car accident lawyer, but I really never thought I would be writing about people who are exercising enough driving misjudgment to be taking selfies while driving. Just like with truck drivers surfing porn while driving, I have again misjudged the capacity of humans to commit horrendous acts of driving misjudgment and endanger the lives of others.”
As an attorney who has devoted his my 20-year career to helping car accident victims who have been injured by negligent, at-fault drivers, it’s #selfie-taking drivers’ blatant disregard for safety and well-being of others that outrages me.
So, to quench what appears to be many people’s otherwise insatiable need to take pictures of themselves doing common, everyday things, I propose that people replace the #DrivingSelfie with any or all of the following ten #SafeSelfies, i.e., #selfies that are taken by anyone other than the driver of a moving car:
- #TigersGameSelfie
- #CoffeeSelfie
- #PizzaSelfie
- #DoingHomeworkSelfie
- #ProcrastinatingSelfie
- #RedWingsSelfie
- #LakeMichiganSelfie
- #MarathonSelfie
- #NappingSelfie
- #HappySelfie
Although I haven’t seen specific statistics about #DrivingSelfie-related car accidents and/or the crash risk associated with this dangerous behavior, here are other important statistics about the dangers of distracted driving:
- Drivers are 23 times more likely to crash if they’re texting while driving.
- Using a cell phone use while driving — whether it’s hand-held or hands-free — delays a driver’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.
