Continuing on from yesterday’s discussion about driving while distracted, namely from cellphone use, today we’re going to touch on more of the legal ramifications caused from this as opposed to the CT auto insurance and road safety consequences. Just because you’ve survived an accident (which you caused because you were texting your friend) doesn’t mean you’ve made it out unscathed. This offense is increasingly becoming more and more scrutinized by the both the civil and criminal legal systems. In fact, it’s giving DUI’s a steady run for its money.
We’ll start today with the civil side of distracted driving cases. These verdicts handed down have awarded millions to the victims and/or their families. Furthermore, if the accident occurred because a driver of a company vehicle was distracted, those companies have had to shell out some serious dough. Here are some pretty significant examples:
- The Coca-Cola Company was forced by a Texas jury to give $21 million to a 37-year-old woman who suffered serious injuries caused from an accident that was the fault of a Coke sales rep who was talking on the phone at the time of the accident. Furthermore, the jury blamed Coke for neglecting to implement a sufficiently stringent cell phone policy for anyone driving a company car.
- $18 million was awarded to a victim who sustained such serious injuries that the he was in permanent vegetative state after being hit by a truck driven by an employee of Holmes Transport, Inc who was found to be texting at the time of the accident.
As faras criminal prosecutions, there are many, manyof them, but here are a few for today:
- Just last summer, a teenager was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for causing ahead on collision that killed a man and gravely injured his girlfriend in the passenger seat. The teen’s vehicle had veered into the other lane of traffic and collided with the other vehicle. It was found that the teen sent text messages literally seconds before the crash occurred.
- Also last summer, a young adult woman was found guilty of “homicide by texting while driving.” She had hit a man on the side of the road who was standing next to his broken down vehicle. She was sentenced to one year in jail and several years afterward of probation.
Now if stories like this don’t deter you from texting while driving, then well I just don’t know what will. Please, please, please, put down the phone when you’re driving and keep your focus in front of you, on the road at all times- not only for your safety, but for the safety of everyone on the road!