Most people today find themselves on the run way too often. This renders our automobiles a good lunch spot-on-the-go most days. While people are increasingly eating and driving, more car crashes are being attributed to the risk of eating and driving. Despite this risk, many people make use of their time on the road by driving and eating, driving and texting, and I have even seen on rare occasions, driving and reading books.
Obviously, anything that reduces our ability to pay attention and use our hands is hazardous while driving. As intuitive as this is, what makes people still engage in these dangerous activities while driving even with the increase in risk of a car accident? MyFoxDC.com released a story from insurance.com that is interested in a similar question: how willing are people to admit that they engage in these dangerous activities?
The survey that they reported had to do with dangerous activities that often result in a car accident or car crashes. While many of the people that responded admitted that driving and talking/texting on a cell phone was dangerous, only 3 percent considered eating and driving to be one of the most dangerous activities to engage in while driving. This is surprising given the number of cases where negligent driving in cases of car accidents is attributed to eating while driving.
Hazardous Foods for Car Accidents
Insurance.com supplemented this survey with a list of some of the types of foods that are among the most dangerous to consume while driving. Hot liquid foods is one of the most dangerous to consume while driving. Spills can seriously distract a driver causing them to swerve or completely neglect the road, resulting in a car accident.
Greasy foods are another category of dangerous foods to consume while driving. They make the steering wheel a mess producing a two-edged sword of dangerous condition: greasy foods distract you and make navigation more difficult.
The third category of dangerous foods to consume are gooey foods. They attributed and interesting reason as to why this is among categories of most dangerous foods to eat while driving. The reason being that it can get on your clothes causing you to worry about your appearance, be distracted from the road, and make your hands sticky rendering navigation more difficult.
Eating, Driving, Car Accidents & Insurance Rates
Sharon Webb, an independent insurance agent with Insurance.com said, “Insurance company claim reports are filled with poor excuses for car accidents. I’ve heard things like eating chocolate cake without a fork or spilling hot clam chowder while driving, as well as tamer excuses like the lid slipped off my soft drink or the dog jumped on my lap.”
Given that foods, especially the ones listed above, can easily cause car crashes, are insurance companies penalizing drivers for eating and driving? The basic answer is no. Car accident reports do not necessarily ask you about eating, however, it is important to involve a car accident lawyer in determining fault since eating while driving can greatly increase the likelihood that you will be determined the at-fault-driver.
Jeffrey Nadrich
Jeffrey Nadrich is a nationally-recognized California plaintiff’s personal injury attorney. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Hastings College of the Law. He has successfully represented thousands of injury clients over the last 40 years.