Texting While Driving Banned
12/29/2007
Texting while driving officially becomes illegal on January 1, 2008. The law is a secondary violation, meaning that a police officer must first spot another violation (such as a person not wearing a seatbelt or speeding) before someone who is texting can be pulled over. This law and the law banning cell phone use while driving (enforced starting July 1, 2008) are attempts to decrease the number and the severity of collisions. A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that 80 percent of collisions involved distracted drivers.
Have you been the victim of a distracted driver? If so, consider contacting an attorney today.
I don't think this new law will have much, if any, effect on personal injury claims. For someone to be legally liable for causing a collision, he or she must be negligent. If someone was texting or using a cell phone while driving, became distracted and caused an accident, we'd agree that he or she was negligent, even if this law didn't exist. This illustrates the importance of our civil justice system--people who negligently injure others can be held responsible for their actions through money damages even if the government couldn't punish them under the criminal law.
