Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog

Maryland's new DWCP (Driving While on Cell Phone) law starts tomorrow. Here are the details:

2. Are there exceptions?

Of course. Cell phone calls placed to (and from) 9-1-1, ambulance, hospital, fire, or law enforcement agencies are still permitted. You can still use your cell phone to place the call although that is when a lot of distracted-driver car accidents occur.

3. Will you get pulled over for just talking on a cell phone?

No. This is the part of the law that really lacks teeth much the same way we began with seat belt laws in Maryland many years ago. The new Maryland law makes driving while talking on your cell phone a secondary offense which means you have to get pulled over for something else first.

4. What is the fine for the offense?

The fine for a first offense would be $40 and no points. Subsequent offenses will result in a $100 fine and the imposition of the much feared points. Well, actually one point. If cell phone use is thought to contribute to an accident (a tough call to make, obviously), the at-fault driver can be assessed three points.

5. Is this new Maryland law going to make us safer?

I think so but maybe for different reasons than the Maryland legislature thinks. There is no doubt that cell phone use is causing auto accidents in massive numbers. Car accident statistics compiled by the federal government are unambiguous. The National Safety Council has estimated that cell phone use is responsible for 1.6 million crashes a year, nationally -- about 28 percent of all crashes. Let's pretend that number is exaggerated twofold. It is still an extraordinary number. But there is also data suggesting that the distraction of the conversation itself is the real problem, not the use of a handheld phone. If that is true - and I'm not sure that it is but it may be - why would the new law help? I think there may be a Freakanomics type explanation. A by-product of the law will be less cell phone calls while driving generally. Given how overwhelming the data is, a decrease is cell phone usage - for whatever reasons - is going to lead to a decrease in car accidents in Maryland. This will obscure the real problem - driving while distracted - for a while but it will lead to less car accident deaths in the meantime.

The underlying premise of uninsured motorist coverage insurance in Maryland, as it is in most states, is to put the car accident victim in the same position they would find themselves in had the at-fault driver had liability coverage equal to the coverage to that of the accident victim. I'm oversimplifying a bit because you can have UM coverage in some instances that is less than your liability coverage. But, in the vast majority of cases, your liability coverage mirrors your uninsured motorist coverage.

So in a pure uninsured motorist case where the other driver either cannot be identified (hit-and-run or phantom vehicle are the most prominent examples) or has no insurance, your own insurance company essentially steps in the shoes of the defendant, assuming the at-fault driver's liability for the accident but also his damages.

This is a simple concept but for Maryland accident victims, it is conceptually difficult to get your mind around. Why is my insurance company defending the guy who hurt me? Why is my own insurance company now essentially my adversary?

As crazy as it seems and as aggregating as it might feel to have your own insurance company turn against you, it is actually a good thing for you because while the insurance company is essentially defending the bad guy, they are also paying the money that bad guy would have paid you if he had insurance.

Everyone hates people who text while driving. Everyone. Even, notably, those who text while driving themselves. In response, we have passed a lot of laws to ban texting while driving.

How are they working? The early returns are not good. The recent report by the Highway Loss Data Institute listed car accident data in four states - California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Washington - that have banned texting while driving and found that there was no decrease in the accident rate. The study further found that instead of a decrease in texting-related car accidents, "there appears to have been a small increase in claims in the states enacting texting bans" suggesting "that texting drivers have responded to the law . . . by hiding their phones from view."

Who funded the study? The report is by the Highway Loss Data Institute, an insurance industry-funded research group that opposes laws banning text messages for reasons that escape me as I write this post. I don't think they have a lot of credibility. But, look, I don't disagree with the premise. The law is new and public awareness as to the scope of the distracted driver problems (over 5,000 deaths a year in this country) has not waded its way into the public consciousness beyond the reflex of hating everyone who texts and drives except yourself. But over time, anti-texting laws will be an important weapon to underscoring the risk of texting and driving. The other big weapon, sadly, will be continued reports and understanding of the bloodshed that results from people texting while driving.

• Cell Phone Accident Statistics
• Enforcement of Maryland New Ban on Text Messages While Driving

Our lawyers have spent some time making our Maryland Accident Victim Help Center more useful for accident victims in personal injury cases in Maryland. If you are looking for detailed information on how Maryland law works and how it is applied in accident cases, you should visit the help center.

Baltimore drivers are among the worst in the country, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

The Baltimore Business Journal's source is Allstate which would normally make me, ah, question the source. But Allstate has no real motivation to spin this (besides justifying the obscene car insurance prices they charge in Baltimore).

Allstate ranked 200 of America’s largest cities using car accident statistics. Baltimore drivers are in an accident an average of every 5.6 years. Of course, the vast majority of these accidents are property damage only accidents that are relatively minor.

The Allstate report also found that Baltimore drivers are also 79.4 percent more likely to get into a car accident than the average American, putting Baltimore next to last in safety. The big loser in car accident safety: Washington, D.C., which was ranked the most dangerous city in the country.

In spite of this, Baltimore has relatively few fatal car accidents compared to many other jurisdictions in Maryland. I believe Prince George's County has four times as many fatal accidents as Baltimore City. Why? The relative lack of highways which leads to less high speed accidents - of particular importance, less high speed truck accidents.

Motorcyclists are getting smarter and smarter and it is saving lives. According to the NHTSA, use of motorcycle helmets in 2009 was up 67 percent, an increase of 4% from 2008 and an increase of 22% from 2005.

It is axiomatic that wearing a helmet is the single most effective way of reducing head injuries and fatal accidents on motorcycles and bicycles. One study shows that wearing a helmet has been shown to decrease the risk of serious injury on a motorcycle by 70% and decrease the risk of a fatality by 40%.

Wearing a bike helmet is the lowest possible hanging fruit to save lives on motorcycles and bicycles. We are making tons of progress, we just need that progress to continue.

• Police policy on chasing motorcycles
• The NHTSA Study
• Motorcycle Accident Claims in Maryland (an overview)