Texting a driver in New Jersey could see you in court

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Winnow
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Texting a driver in New Jersey could see you in court

Post by Winnow »

Text a driver in New Jersey, and you could see your day in court

(CNN) -- We've all heard the dictum: Don't text and drive. Now, a New Jersey state appeals court has an addendum: Don't text a driver -- or you could be held liable if he causes a crash.

Kyle Best was behind the wheel of his pickup in September 2009 driving down a rural highway, when Shannon Colonna sent him a text.

The two were teens at the time. He was 18; she was 17, and they were dating. They sent each other 62 texts that day, according to court documents.

In the opposing lane of traffic, David Kubert was cruising along on a big, blue touring motorcycle with his wife Linda along for the ride. They approached Best at exactly the wrong time.

The texts

A court summary of the times of texts and calls to and from Best's cell phone reflect what happened next:

The teens were having a text chat, volleying each other messages every few moments.

Seventeen seconds after Best sent a text, he was calling a 911 operator. (continues in linked article)
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/29/us/new-je ... ?hpt=hp_t1

Most retarded thing ever. It's completely the responsibility of the driver to ignore texts if driving.
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Morgrym
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Re: Texting a driver in New Jersey could see you in court

Post by Morgrym »

"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," the court said.
Good luck proving that...
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Zaelath
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Re: Texting a driver in New Jersey could see you in court

Post by Zaelath »

Driver: Driving now, call you when I get there.

Other: OK.

>Crash<

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