Four people injured in Hwy. 14 crash

Four people suffered injuries due to a crash on Highway 14 in Rock County Wednesday morning.

The Rock County Sheriff’s Office said four vehicles were involved in the Wednesday morning crash, which blocked U.S. Highway 14 in both directions near Wisconsin 59.

“The crash happened around 7:15 a.m. in Union Township, north of Evansville,” an article posted to the WKOW website reads. “The sheriff’s office says emergency crews have been called to the scene and there are potential injuries to the people in the vehicles.”

The sheriff’s office had to reroute traffic from U.S. 14 because both lanes were blocked as a result of the four-car pileup.

The Rock County Sheriff’s office told reporters Wednesday that the four people who were injured as a result of the crash suffered non-life threatening injuries.

“According to authorities, an 18-year-old male was cited for inattentive driving,” the article reads.

Wisconsin state law requires that no person while driving a motor vehicle may be engaged or occupied with an activity, other than driving the vehicle, which interferes or reasonably appears to interfere with the person’s ability to drive the vehicle safely.

The law goes on to say that no person may drive any motor vehicle while composing or sending an electronic text message or an electronic mail message.

The article does not mention whether the 18-year-old was on a cell phone or was distracted by some other means.

The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes in the U.S. each year. Nearly 330,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving. One out of every 4 car accidents  in the United States is reportedly caused by texting and driving.

“Despite laws to prevent distracted driving, too many motorists still talk and text on cell phones while behind the wheel. They eat a meal. They rummage for things on the seats, floor, dashboard or other compartments. They even stare intently in the rearview mirror to comb their hair or apply make-up,” ZeroinWisconsin.gov reports. “Because they’re not paying attention to traffic conditions and road hazards, distracted drivers drastically increase their risks of causing a crash or failing to avoid one.”

While texting and driving is a leading cause of distraction behind the wheel, distracted driving is any activity that takes a person’s attention away from the primary task of driving.
There are three main types of distraction:

The typical distraction requires the driver to take their attention off driving for less than five seconds. If a driver is going 55 miles per hour and gets distracted for less than five seconds, they’ve traveled the length of an entire football field (that’s over 100 yards) without paying attention.

In 2015, there were 24,089 car crashes related to distracted driving in Wisconsin. That means, there is a distracted driving accident happening somewhere in Wisconsin every 22 minutes.