Corpus Christi Law Blog

Police in Texas say that a 21-year-old man was driving a truck loaded with 38 cattle while under the influence of drugs on Oct. 9. The man was taken into custody following a traffic stop on U.S. Highway 84 according to a Littlefield Police Department press release. After being booked, the man was turned over to the custody of the Lamb County Jail. Initial reports do not indicate if the man's bail has been set, but they do reveal that a sample of his blood was drawn for toxicology testing.

LPD officers say that they pulled over the cattle truck after receiving reports that it was being driven erratically. A caller is said to have told emergency operators that the vehicle was crossing the roadway from shoulder to shoulder. Officers claim that they took the man into custody after noticing clear signs of impairment, but the LPD press release does not reveal what those signs may have been. The truck and cattle were towed to a feed lot in Lubbock.

A growing number of Texas car buyers are choosing vehicles equipped with advanced systems designed to anticipate and prevent accidents. However, this technology may not be as effective as they believe. This was the conclusion reached by researchers from the American Automobile Association's Foundation for Traffic Safety after they polled 1,200 owners of 2016 and 2017 passenger vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance systems.

The AAA researchers say they were concerned by how little the motorists responding to their poll knew about the key limitations of advanced safety technology like blind-spot monitoring, emergency braking systems and adaptive cruise control. They say that their findings suggest that American drivers may not yet be ready to adapt to vehicles with even more sophisticated autonomous technology.

A study conducted by Volvo and The Harris Poll made some interesting findings regarding distracted driving. Texas drivers should know that the number one distraction for people behind the wheel is mobile devices. The people who admit to using their phones while driving, though, fall unexpectedly into several groups.

Specifically, Gen Xers are tied with Millennials as the most likely to use their phones while driving with 81 percent of those surveyed admitting it. Among members of Generation Z, 71 percent admitted using their phones while driving. Baby boomers were divided into two groups with 64 percent of older boomers and 72 percent of younger boomers admitting to using their phones while driving.

Drowsy driving can be one of the most common and deadly dangers to face motorists on Texas roadways. Whether people are returning home from a long day of work or simply dealing with a poor night's sleep, fatigued driving occurs all too frequently. One report by the American Automobile Association noted that the number of crashes involving drowsiness could be eight times higher than official estimates suggest. In addition, another survey showed that 60 percent of American adults admitted to driving while sleepy and a full 37 percent of respondents said that they had fallen asleep behind the wheel at least once.

Yet another poll found that 3 percent of Americans admitted that they had fallen asleep while operating a vehicle in the two-week period preceding the survey. While drowsy driving may be common, it can also be severely dangerous. When people drive while drowsy, they are at a far greater risk of causing serious car accidents. Drowsy drivers have slow reaction times and impaired decision-making abilities, especially in emergency situations. In fact, sleepy driving has often been compared to drunk driving in terms of the effect on the body.