You may be responsible if you are texting someone who has a car accident.

June 07, 2018, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

Insurance companies and legal experts are saying that testers who send messages to people who they know are driving could be held liable for accidents that the driver has. As the problem of distracted driving takes continues to escalate governments, insurers, and the Courts are all looking for ways to curb the problem.

The supposition is that if you were in the car and did something to distract the driver, interfering with the sae operation of the vehicle you could be held responsible for the injuries of a third party. In fact a New Jersey court ruling in 2013 concluded that the tester who caused a driver to become distracted could be held liable for the accident damages.  In the specific case a woman texted her boyfriend about 30 seconds before he crossed the median and injured two motorcyclists who both lost their legs.  The New Jersey Court of Appeal in KUBERT v. Shannon Colonna held that

“We hold that the sender of a text message can potentially be liable if an accident is caused by texting, but only if the sender knew or had special reason to know that the recipient would view the text while driving and thus be distracted… We affirm the trial court's order dismissing plaintiffs' complaint against the sender of the text messages, but we do not adopt the trial court's reasoning that a remote texter does not have a legal duty to avoid sending text messages to one who is driving.

While Ontario courts have not yet taken this position, experts think it’s only a question of time before a case comes to trial addressing this issue. The comparison being made by Mr. Solway, vice president of claims at Travelers Canada, is to a bar owner who allows someone to become drunk and then drive away and is involved in a car crash. In essence the bar owner puts the person in a position where they can cause harm to themselves or another person.

This is a huge concern to insurers as they face the cost of paying out the claims on the injured parties.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

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