A female bicyclist was involved in a car accident along Highway 90 in Marathon when a person talking on his cell phone while driving crashed his car into her. She was with her husband on a cross-country biking expedition a the time. While her husband was not injured in the car accident, she suffered multiple injuries to her arms, neck, wrist and ribs. She had to go through a few neck and elbow surgeries.
The driver was on his cell phone when he drove his pickup truck carrying a trailer into the female bicyclist. Fortunately, the woman survived the car accident. The same stretch of road was also the scene of another bicycle and car accident. That incident had a more tragic ending because a 60-year-old man riding a bike was killed when a female drunk driver hit him. The female drunk driver only received four years in prison for intoxication manslaughter.
Surprisingly, the driver who caused the accident in the earlier case did not receive a citation. Unfortunately, Texas does not have distracted driving laws for people using cell phones while driving. The issue with regard to both car accident cases is about having stricter punishment for those who break the law while driving and preventing similar types of accidents from happening again.
There have been bills proposed in Texas to make it a criminal offense for someone to read or send a text message while driving. However, that was vetoed before it reached the Senate because the governor felt it “micromanaged the behavior of adults.” Texas and seven other states are the only few states left without bans on texting while driving. Without cell phone laws, the only things Texas lawyers can do for those who have been injured in a car accident involving bikes, cell phones and drunk driving is to help the victims receive compensation and seek justice against those who caused their pain and suffering.
Source: oaoa.com, Deadly crash reminder of driving danger, Lindsay Weaver, Feb. 17, 2014