A whole new take on texting while driving | The Law Offices of Tyler & Peery

On Behalf of | May 9, 2012 | Distracted Driving |

In a story by the Associated Press and published on NJ.com, one case making its way through the court system involves a terrible accident that resulted in the loss of a leg for both a husband and wife. The driver who caused the accident was texting while driving.

Specifically, he was reading a text, sent to him by a friend. What makes this case unusual – but, in the age of texting, unsurprising – is that his friend (the one who sent the text) is a defendant in the injury lawsuit.

Essentially, the Associated Press reports that a judge must now decide whether someone who sends a text, even though she wasn’t in the car when the accident happened, and had nothing to do with the conduct of the driver, should share some responsibility for causing the wreck.

But it wasn’t like the text sender held a gun to his head and forced him to read it while driving.

Even though we regularly hold truck drivers responsible for texting while driving and causing a truck accident, we feel that only in the age of texting could such a case be presented in the courtroom.

Holding the sender of a text responsible for an accident, especially when the sender was nowhere near the scene of the crash, seems to be a bit of a stretch.

SourceN.J. judge to decide if text sender liable for car crash