Legal Options in Distracted Driving Cases
Most people multitask their way through life. One of our friends claimed she could simultaneously cook dinner, talk on the phone, feed her infant, and yell at her older children. Multitasking in the kitchen is usually relatively safe, but multitasking behind the wheel is incredibly dangerous. The statistics support this conclusion. Distracted drivers cause about 10 percent of car accidents in San Diego.
These crash victims need and deserve substantial compensation for their serious injuries. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. A Carlsbad personal injury lawyer can obtain additional punitive damages, in some extreme cases. Moreover, a third party, like an employer, is frequently financially responsible for these damages.
Device Distraction
This rule usually applies in device distraction cases. Although they account for a small percentage of distracted driving wrecks, hand-held devices may be the most dangerous source of driver distraction. These gadgets combine all three kinds of distraction, which are:
- Manual (hand off the wheel),
- Visual (eyes off the road), and
- Cognitive (mind off driving).
California, like many other states, has a hands-free law which basically makes it illegal to operate or hold a hand-held device while driving, except in limited circumstances. If a violation of this law, or any other safety law, substantially causes injury, the tortfeasor (negligent driver) could be liable for damages as a matter of law.
The negligence per se rule applies in civil court even if the tortfeasor “beats” the criminal charges. Civil jurors, or other civil factfinders, decide all the facts in a civil case, including culpability, or lack thereof, for a traffic violation.
Significantly, one minor infraction triggers the negligence per se rule. A pattern of conduct, which is an element in ordinary negligence claims, is irrelevant. Robbing a convenience store once is just as illegal as robbing it three times.
However, if Bill robs a convenience store three times, he’ll face stiffer criminal penalties than Jim, who robbed it once. Likewise, the more evidence of fault a Carlsbad personal injury lawyer presents, the more damages the victim will likely receive.
Non-Device Distraction
California also has a reckless driving law. This law could technically apply to eating while driving, drinking while driving, and other non-device distraction. However, emergency responders rarely apply this law in this way.
So, in most cases, a Carlsbad personal injury lawyer must use the ordinary negligence doctrine to obtain compensation in these matters. This doctrine has four basic elements:
- Duty, which is usually a duty of reasonable care to avoid accidents if possible,
- Breach, an ongoing violation as opposed to a one-off wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time accident,
- Cause, or a connection between the breach and the damages, and
- Damages, which is a personal injury or property damage.
The case must be strong enough to refuse some common insurance company defenses, such as comparative fault. This rule shifts blame for an accident onto the victim (e.g. the victim’s excessive speed, not the tortfeasor’s distraction, substantially caused the wreck).
Work With a Tough-Minded San Diego County Lawyer
Injury victims are entitled to substantial compensation. For a confidential consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Carlsbad, contact the Pursley Law Firm. Virtual, home, and hospital visits are available.
Source:
nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving
