Turn your phone off when you drive

Perhaps the easiest way to become a safer driver is just to turn off your phone. Other actions, such as putting on a seat belt, are certainly wise and can help you if you get into an accident. But turning your phone off is one of the best ways to avoid getting into that accident in the first place.

Fortunately, many modern phones also have a “Do Not Disturb” setting. When used, it blocks incoming notifications. For text messages, it can auto-reply to let the person who sent the text know that you are driving and you won’t respond (or even see the message) until you stop.

This is very helpful because most text messages are not that urgent. It’s just that the sender doesn’t know that you’re in the car. If they did, they’d tell you not to check the message until you stopped anyway. The Do Not Disturb feature just does it for you so that you’re not tempted to check — and so that you don’t assume the message is urgent when it’s not.

The problem here is that people can easily turn this feature off, disable it or just ignore it entirely. All it takes is the click of one button to tell the phone that you’re not actually driving. This is done for passengers, but drivers can use it to get around the safety system. They do it all the time. This is just one reason why distracted driving continues, despite the risks.

If one of these distracted drivers crashes into your car and causes lasting injuries, you may be able to seek compensation for things like medical bills, lost wages and loss of enjoyment in life.