A couple who were injured in a 2009 collision are seeking to add another defendant to their lawsuit. While in and of itself this isn’t unusual, the person they plan to sue is. The couple was injured in a collision when a teenage driver collided with their car because he was not paying attention to the road. The teenager was texting while driving.
The additional defendant that the couple plans to sue is the person on the other end of the phone–the individual that the teenager was texting with at the time of the accident. The couple claim that the other individual was “electronically present” at the time of the accident and should have known that the texting was creating a distraction for the driver. Therefore, the couple’s theory goes, the person on the other end of the phone should be liable as well for the injuries sustained by the couple in the accident.
Whether or not the novel theory of liability holds up with the court remains to be seen. Texting while driving, on the other hand, has become a firmly rooted cause of driver distraction over the last decade in the United States and as such can undeniably cause the texting driver to be held liable in an accident.
Just a decade ago, texting was something most people didn’t even know how to do. Although cellular telephones had finally made it down to the average citizen, texting technology was just beginning to take root. Today, texting seems to be a more common form of communication than actually talking. Sadly, this new form of communication has come at a great cost on the nation’s roadways.
Distracted driving is a term used to cover anything that takes a driver’s eyes off the road or hands off the wheel while driving. Before texting came along, distractions such as talking to passengers in the vehicle, eating, applying make-up, changing the radio, and even watching another crash scene were the most common forms of distracted driving. Texting while driving, however, can be even more dangerous than any of these former types of distracted driving. In fact, texting while driving may be as dangerous as drinking and driving.
The popular magazine Car and Driver recently did a little test. The magazine rigged two vehicles with a red light on the dashboard and then sent out an editor and an intern to do a few road tests to see how fast the driver would react when the red light was turned on under three separate sets of circumstances. The first test established a baseline. The second scenario tested how the pair reacted when receiving and sending a text message, while the third tested the pair after drinking enough to reach a blood-alcohol level of .08–the legal limit in most states. The pair performed significantly worse during the texting scenario than they did during the drinking-and-driving test.
The Car and Driver results did not surprise many who have been warning us about the dangers of texting and driving for years now. Experts have been shouting from the rooftops about how dangerous this practice is and why it should be banned on the nation’s roadways. Many states do now have a texting-while-driving ban in place, including both New York and New Jersey; however, as with many other driving laws, not all drivers abide by the law.
If you have been involved in an accident with a New York or New Jersey driver who was texting while driving and you sustained injuries as a result of the accident, you may be entitled to compensation for those injuries.
The auto accident attorneys at Ginarte Gonzalez & Winograd, LLP, have six offices conveniently located in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. Contact the firm today by calling 888-446-2783 for your free consultation or fill out our online contact form.