Distracted Driving Accidents & Related Lawsuits
Distracted driving is a significant factor in motor vehicle accidents, leading to devastating consequences. Beyond the immediate physical and emotional trauma, victims face a complex legal landscape. Understanding your rights and the key legal issues is crucial in pursuing the justice and compensation you deserve.
What Is Distracted Driving?
Legally, distracted driving is any activity that diverts a driver's attention from the primary task of operating a vehicle. This is broadly categorized into three types:
- Visual: Taking your eyes off the road (e.g., looking at a GPS, checking a text).
- Manual: Taking your hands off the wheel (e.g., eating, reaching for an object).
- Cognitive: Taking your mind off driving (e.g., being engrossed in a conversation, daydreaming).
Texting while driving is particularly dangerous because it involves all three types of distraction.
Proving Negligence
To hold the other driver responsible, you must prove their negligence. This means establishing four key elements:
- Duty of Care: Every driver has a legal duty to operate their vehicle with reasonable care to avoid harming others.
- Breach of Duty: The driver failed to uphold their duty. Proving they were texting, on the phone, or otherwise distracted is direct evidence of this breach.
- Causation: You must show a direct link between the driver's distraction (the breach) and the accident that caused your injuries.
- Damages: You must have suffered actual harm, such as physical injuries, property damage, lost wages, or emotional distress.
Negligence Per Se
Some states have specific laws prohibiting texting or using a handheld cell phone while driving. If the at-fault driver violated such a law, the legal doctrine of "negligence per se" may apply, depending on the state. This means their violation can serve as proof of their negligence. You still must prove that this negligence caused your damages.
Employer Liability
If the distracted driver was working at the time of the crash, such as if they were driving for a delivery service, their employer may also be held liable. This legal principle is crucial because commercial insurance policies often provide much greater coverage than personal auto insurance, which may be helpful in compensating for serious injuries.
Comparative Negligence
Often, the other driver's insurance company will argue that you also share some blame. How this affects your case depends on your state's rules on comparative negligence.
- Modified Comparative Negligence: Your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are found to be 20% at fault, you would get 80% of your damages. However, if you are found to be 50% or 51% (depending on the state) or more at fault, you cannot recover any damages at all.
- Pure Comparative Negligence: In some states, you can recover damages even if you were mostly at fault. Your recovery is simply reduced by your percentage of blame. For example, if you were 90% at fault, you could still recover 10% of your damages.
A few states use a strict contributory negligence system, which generally bars recovering damages if you were even 1 percent at fault.
Gathering Evidence
Solid evidence is the cornerstone of a successful distracted driving claim. Key pieces include:
- Police Report: May note observations of distracted behavior or a citation.
- Eyewitness Testimony: Powerful statements from others who saw the driver's distraction.
- Your Own Account: Document everything you remember as soon as possible.
- Photo and Video Evidence: Pictures of the scene, vehicle positions, and any evidence of distraction in the other car.
- Dashcam and Surveillance Video: Footage from your own dashcam or nearby security cameras can provide indisputable proof.
- Cell Phone Records: Your attorney can subpoena the at-fault driver's records to show phone, text, or data usage at the exact time of the crash.
- Social Media Activity: Checking if the driver was posting, streaming, or otherwise active on social media can reveal inattention.
- Vehicle "Black Box" Data: Event data recorders in modern cars can provide crucial information on speed, braking, and steering.
Damages in a Distracted Driving Lawsuit
You may be entitled to recover several types of damages:
- Economic Damages (Tangible Losses):
- Medical expenses (past, current, and future)
- Lost wages and loss of earning capacity
- Property damage
- Non-Economic Damages (Intangible Losses):
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress (anxiety, depression, fear)
- Loss of enjoyment of life
In cases of extreme recklessness, a court may award punitive damages to punish the at-fault driver and deter similar conduct.
The Statute of Limitations
You have a limited time to file a personal injury lawsuit. This deadline is called the statute of limitations, and it varies by state. If you fail to file your lawsuit within this time frame, you may lose your right to seek compensation forever, no matter how strong your case is.
