Unfortunately, this is more common every year. In 2019, 668 Texans and 6,227 Americans lost their lives when they were on foot, the highest numbers in three decades. One would have been too many.
Distracted driving must be stoppedIt is shocking that every day over 1,000 Americans are injured and nine lives are lost due to distracted driving collisions. To combat this horrendous problem, the National Safety Council uses April to try to prevent one of the top three causes of the ridiculously car wreck high fatality rate in the U.S. My law firm supports safety organizations like End DD and tries to promote awareness about how we can stop easily preventable car crashes from happening.
It’s hard to believe how people don’t hesitate to drive 65 mph while looking away from the road and down at their cell phones, often texting while driving. Or fiddling with the dashboard computer, eating and drinking, putting on makeup, or looking behind them at passengers. Or all of the above.
There are over one million people driving at any one time talking and paying more attention to their Facebook news feed than to the drivers around them.
This is an urgent problem, as the reaction time for a distracted driver is like someone’s who is legally intoxicated.
But most people are addicted to their cell phones. The result? We all have to take our already dangerous roads for granted.
A Stephenville woman was arrested Friday after she caused the deaths of two young girls and serious injuries to their mother. Alyssa Litwin, 33, was driving her truck on U.S. Highway 281 southwest of Fort Worth at a speed of approximately 60 mph. But she was texting while driving and didn’t see the SUV in front of her at a complete stop waiting to make a left hand turn. A distracted driver usually doesn’t.
The high-speed crash pushed the SUV into oncoming traffic where it was struck by a truck.
As if her reckless driving were not bad enough, Litwin deleted her text messages. However a forensics exam of her cell phone showed her shocking act of tampering with evidence.
The mother had to be rushed by air ambulance to the ICU at Harris Hospital in Fort Worth. Fortunately, she is in stable condition and two other children in her vehicle were not hurt.
But this is such a heartbreaking story, especially at Christmas time. Please join our office in making a donation to the GoFundMe account that has been set up to assist the family.
Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog