A coverage professional told nation lawmakers Wednesday that Georgia site visitors’ fatalities, accidents, and collision claims have fallen; thank you in the component to the country’s new distracted driving law. Traffic fatalities fell 3.4 percentage in 2018 over the previous 12 months, according to Robert Hartwig, director of the Center for Risk and Uncertainty Management at the University of South Carolina: The finding reflects initial information launched last month by using the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, which located a 7 percent decline in fatalities. Hartwig instructed the House Insurance Committee that the frequency of injuries related to injuries also has declined the final 3 quarters:
And he suggested the frequency of collision insurance claims in Georgia has declined during the last five quarters: These developments are opposite years of increases that safety specialists attributed in part to distracted riding. Hartwig told lawmakers the best information is due, in the component, to the Hands-Free Georgia Act, which took impact final July. The law prohibits Georgia motorists from protecting their mobile phones or different digital gadgets simultaneously as driving.
Though the trends Hartwig noted started before the regulation took the impact, he stated public attention to distracted driving in all likelihood increased as the bill changed into debated inside the General Assembly remaining winter, contributing to the decline in accidents and property damage. Improved automobile era – like built-in hands-free gadgets and automatic braking – additionally possibly contributed to the nice traits, he said. Not all of the information Hartwig delivered was top. Though insurance claims have fallen, the common value of those claims has risen. That’s in all likelihood due to the fact cars are extra pricey. Cars are fast becoming computer systems on wheels,” Hartwig told lawmakers. “And computers are high-priced to restore.
Hartwig predicted further declines in fatalities and injuries.
There’s no doubt in my thoughts that the Hands-Free Georgia Act is helping flip matters round through multiplied recognition and, as we go ahead, extended enforcement,” he said.
