would using your cell phone and getting into a car accident in Florida be negligent on your part and what laws would govern?
Total Comments: 11
Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 08:14 pm Post Subject:
Could be but I doubt anyone would try to hold that against th person... or at least not give it much weight at all if any. I see no reason why legally it could not have some negligence applied to it. I just don't think it would hold much weight in front of a jury with all other things considered.
It would also need to be shown that being on the phone was directly related to the loss. That is, if the other person ran a red light and hit the person on the phone, being on the phone or not would not have changed what happened. This is a big reason why I doubt it would hold much weight.
Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:46 pm Post Subject: insurance
As some of 'you' know, I live in PA. In a VERY small town (LOL). If a policeman sees the driver talking on his cell phone, the driver can be pulled over. Now...here's my question: DID someone see you, on your cell, while you were driving? (Just curious..)
Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:58 pm Post Subject:
If a policeman sees the driver talking on his cell phone, the driver can be pulled over.
Is this a new law? According to IIHS, it's not illegal to use a cell phone on PA.
http://www.iihs.org/laws/cellphonelaws.aspx
Very few states allow an officer to pull someone over just for being on their phone... even if it's illegal in that state.
Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 12:43 am Post Subject: insurance
I don't know if it's a new law, or not,..however...a friend of mine DID get pulled over, for being on her cell phone, while she was driving. A policeman was right beside her, at a light. She was in the lane, about to go through the light. The policeman was in the 'turn' lane. She was fined $100.00. Wasn't a happy camper!!LOL
Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 01:35 am Post Subject:
Here is a list of the current laws that each state has on the books concerning text messages and cell phone calls while driving.
Alabama: No Laws
Alaska: Illegal for all drivers with the enforcement being primary, meaning that a police officer can pull over a driver for sending a text message even if he isn’t breaking any other traffic laws.
Arizona: Only bans school bus drivers from speaking on their cell phone
Arkansas: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
California: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
Colorado: No Laws
Connecticut: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
Delaware: Illegal for novice drivers with a GDL to send texts or make phone calls with primary enforcement. Also illegal for school bus drivers to make phone calls.
D.C.: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
Florida: No Laws
Georgia: Only bans school bus drivers from speaking on their cell phone
Hawaii: No Laws
Idaho: No Laws
Illinois: Only bans school bus drivers and those under 19 from speaking on their cell phone
Indiana: Only bans those under 18 from talking or texting on a cell phone
Iowa: No Laws
Kansas: Only bans those with a learners license from talking or texting on a cell phone
Kentucky: Only bans school bus drivers from speaking on their cell phone
Louisiana: Illegal for all drivers with secondary enforcement, meaning a driver can only be pulled over for a different traffic violation and then ticketed for cell phone usage
Maine: Only bans those under 18 from talking or texting on a cell phone
Maryland: Only bans those under 18 from talking or texting on a cell phone
Massachusetts: Only bans school bus drivers from speaking on their cell phone
Michigan: No Laws
Minnesota: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
Mississippi: Only illegal for those with a learner's license to text while driving
Missouri: No Laws
Montana: No Laws
Nebraska: Illegal for all drivers with secondary enforcement
Nevada: No Laws
New Hampshire: No Laws
New Jersey: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
New Mexico: No Laws
New York: Only bans school bus drivers from speaking on their cell phone
North Carolina: Only bans school bus drivers and those under 19 from speaking on their cell phone
North Dakota: No Laws
Ohio: No Laws
Oklahoma: No Laws
Oregon: Only illegal for those with a learner's license to text while driving Pennsylvania: No laws
Rhode Island: Only illegal for school bus drivers and those under 18 to talk on cell phones while driving
South Carolina: No Laws
South Dakota: No Laws
Tennessee: Only illegal for school bus drivers and those under 18 to talk on cell phones while driving
Texas: Only illegal for school bus drivers and those under 18 to talk or text on cell phones while driving
Utah: Illegal for all drivers with secondary enforcement
Vermont: No Laws
Virginia: Illegal for all drivers with secondary enforcement
Washington: Illegal for all drivers with secondary enforcement
West Virginia: Only illegal for those with a learner's license to talk or text on cell phones while driving
Wisconsin: No Laws
Wyoming: No Laws
So if I was in PA and got a ticket for it or any other state with no laws, I'd be seeing the issuing officer in court.
Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 07:27 pm Post Subject:
The City of Chicago requires that if you use a cell phone while driving you must use a hands free attachment. I believe they can tickt you for no compliance. I inadvertently was suing one once talking to my Mother about Church. (well not really about church but it was my mother) when a cop pulled up next to me at a stop light rolled down his window and told me to hang up the phone. Its was then that I remembered the law, said I was sorry and the cop look ma little annoyed and said "are you really". I hung up and they let me go.
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 07:39 am Post Subject: Person who caused my accident...
The person driving their car the wrong way down a one-way street & straight into a six lane intersection wasn't drunk. I would bet money he was texting. There's just no excuse for not even hesitating before you plow into an intersection like that. If he'd been looking, he would've noticed the traffic signals pointed the other direction or at least the cars in the road. My car is totalled but I'm not dead. Put down the cell phones people... pay attention to the road.
I wouldn't be suprised to see insurance companies lobbying to have texting while driving made illegal. Then they could exclude coverage for texting related accidents like DWI's.
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 01:26 pm Post Subject:
Ive seen a study on texting and cell phone use while driving and the conclusing was that for most people, cell phone usage while driving was the equalivent of Driving while intoxicated and texting while driving was 4x worse. It should definetly be illegal!
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 03:05 pm Post Subject:
From the study:
""We found that people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit” of 0.08 percent, which is the minimum level that defines illegal drunken driving in most U.S. states"
"Participants followed a simulated pace car that braked intermittently."
"Both handheld and hands-free cell phones impaired driving, with no significant difference in the degree of impairment."
"That “calls into question driving regulations that prohibited handheld cell phones and permit hands-free cell phones,” the researchers write."
Or... maybe it calls into question the minimum limit of DUI.
Here is what you _don't_ see commented on from those studies:
"Drews says the lack of accidents among the study’s drunken drivers was surprising. He and Strayer speculate that because simulated drives were conducted during mornings, participants who got drunk were well-rested and in the “up” phase of intoxication. In reality, 80 percent of all fatal alcohol-related accidents occur between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. when drunken drivers tend to be fatigued. Average blood-alcohol levels in those accidents are twice 0.08 percent. Forty percent of the roughly 42,000 annual U.S. traffic fatalities involve alcohol."
"While none of the study’s intoxicated drivers crashed, their hard, late braking is “predictive of increased accident rates over the long run,” the researchers wrote."
WHAT??!!! No people at .08 BAL even caused an accident??!!! "Predictive".... a fancy word for "we really don't know".
"Strayer says he expects criticism “suggesting that we are trivializing drunken-driving impairment, but it is anything but the case. We don't think people should drive while drunk, nor should they talk on their cell phone while driving.”"
Ah... now we get some truth! First... this is one of those "studies" where you can get the numbers to mean anything... especially if you include so little data and combine it with unrelated things. I know, lets put 40 baby killers behind the wheel instead of drunk people. If they test better then people on cell phones then cell phone use while driving is worse then killing babies. As mentioned, no intoxicated people caused an accident in the study. So this proves people who talk on cell phones while driving are no worse then.... people _who don't cause accidents_. Read that again. No really, read that again. One more time. But let's compare people who use cell phones while driving to people no one can like. Then we can use sensational headlines to make it look like our study really told us something.
"Drews says he and Strayer compared the impairment of motorists using cell phones to drivers with a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level because they wanted to determine if the risk of driving while phoning was comparable to the drunken driving risk considered unacceptable."
Yeah, everyone who believes _that_ was the reason, please stand up. It wasn't because their initial reason for doing the test was to get in the news. That probably had _nothing_ to do with it. I'm sure if they spend all of their time and money and what they set out to prove was false that they would have just walked away from it all with nothing.
Is talking on the phone while driving distracting? I would _certainly_ say so. It listening to the radio distracting? Yup! Is talking to someone else in the vehicle distracting? Double yup... probably just as much as talking on the phone while driving. Is looking out the window distracting? Well of course it is. While they had everything set up why did they not test these things as well? Would it not make sense to have a well rounded chart to compare other things to talking on the phone? Of course... but then it would not have been as sensational and it might have shown the _level_ of distraction while on the phone was actually quite low.
I handle a _lot_ of auto accident claims. Being on the phone is almost never an issue. But of course people not paying attention is the issue 99% of the time.
Here is my personal take on the situation... texting on the phone is completely different then talking on the phone while driving. I think texting should be illegal in all 50 states and I think law enforcement should be able to pull someone over just for this reason. But texting _is_ different then talking on the phone. Don't confuse the two.
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 06:42 pm Post Subject: laws
I don't think you should talk on your cell phone OR text while you're driving. I'm not saying I never have..I'm just saying, even for a split second, you can miss something or get into an accident, etc. If feasible, you should pull over (into a parking lot, somewhere..) and talk on your cell.
Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 08:14 pm Post Subject:
Could be but I doubt anyone would try to hold that against th person... or at least not give it much weight at all if any. I see no reason why legally it could not have some negligence applied to it. I just don't think it would hold much weight in front of a jury with all other things considered.
It would also need to be shown that being on the phone was directly related to the loss. That is, if the other person ran a red light and hit the person on the phone, being on the phone or not would not have changed what happened. This is a big reason why I doubt it would hold much weight.
Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:46 pm Post Subject: insurance
As some of 'you' know, I live in PA. In a VERY small town (LOL). If a policeman sees the driver talking on his cell phone, the driver can be pulled over. Now...here's my question: DID someone see you, on your cell, while you were driving? (Just curious..)
Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:58 pm Post Subject:
If a policeman sees the driver talking on his cell phone, the driver can be pulled over.
Is this a new law? According to IIHS, it's not illegal to use a cell phone on PA.
http://www.iihs.org/laws/cellphonelaws.aspx
Very few states allow an officer to pull someone over just for being on their phone... even if it's illegal in that state.
Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 12:43 am Post Subject: insurance
I don't know if it's a new law, or not,..however...a friend of mine DID get pulled over, for being on her cell phone, while she was driving. A policeman was right beside her, at a light. She was in the lane, about to go through the light. The policeman was in the 'turn' lane. She was fined $100.00. Wasn't a happy camper!!LOL
Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 01:35 am Post Subject:
Here is a list of the current laws that each state has on the books concerning text messages and cell phone calls while driving.
Alabama: No Laws
Alaska: Illegal for all drivers with the enforcement being primary, meaning that a police officer can pull over a driver for sending a text message even if he isn’t breaking any other traffic laws.
Arizona: Only bans school bus drivers from speaking on their cell phone
Arkansas: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
California: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
Colorado: No Laws
Connecticut: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
Delaware: Illegal for novice drivers with a GDL to send texts or make phone calls with primary enforcement. Also illegal for school bus drivers to make phone calls.
D.C.: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
Florida: No Laws
Georgia: Only bans school bus drivers from speaking on their cell phone
Hawaii: No Laws
Idaho: No Laws
Illinois: Only bans school bus drivers and those under 19 from speaking on their cell phone
Indiana: Only bans those under 18 from talking or texting on a cell phone
Iowa: No Laws
Kansas: Only bans those with a learners license from talking or texting on a cell phone
Kentucky: Only bans school bus drivers from speaking on their cell phone
Louisiana: Illegal for all drivers with secondary enforcement, meaning a driver can only be pulled over for a different traffic violation and then ticketed for cell phone usage
Maine: Only bans those under 18 from talking or texting on a cell phone
Maryland: Only bans those under 18 from talking or texting on a cell phone
Massachusetts: Only bans school bus drivers from speaking on their cell phone
Michigan: No Laws
Minnesota: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
Mississippi: Only illegal for those with a learner's license to text while driving
Missouri: No Laws
Montana: No Laws
Nebraska: Illegal for all drivers with secondary enforcement
Nevada: No Laws
New Hampshire: No Laws
New Jersey: Illegal for all drivers with primary enforcement
New Mexico: No Laws
New York: Only bans school bus drivers from speaking on their cell phone
North Carolina: Only bans school bus drivers and those under 19 from speaking on their cell phone
North Dakota: No Laws
Ohio: No Laws
Oklahoma: No Laws
Oregon: Only illegal for those with a learner's license to text while driving
Pennsylvania: No laws
Rhode Island: Only illegal for school bus drivers and those under 18 to talk on cell phones while driving
South Carolina: No Laws
South Dakota: No Laws
Tennessee: Only illegal for school bus drivers and those under 18 to talk on cell phones while driving
Texas: Only illegal for school bus drivers and those under 18 to talk or text on cell phones while driving
Utah: Illegal for all drivers with secondary enforcement
Vermont: No Laws
Virginia: Illegal for all drivers with secondary enforcement
Washington: Illegal for all drivers with secondary enforcement
West Virginia: Only illegal for those with a learner's license to talk or text on cell phones while driving
Wisconsin: No Laws
Wyoming: No Laws
So if I was in PA and got a ticket for it or any other state with no laws, I'd be seeing the issuing officer in court.
Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 07:27 pm Post Subject:
The City of Chicago requires that if you use a cell phone while driving you must use a hands free attachment. I believe they can tickt you for no compliance. I inadvertently was suing one once talking to my Mother about Church. (well not really about church but it was my mother) when a cop pulled up next to me at a stop light rolled down his window and told me to hang up the phone. Its was then that I remembered the law, said I was sorry and the cop look ma little annoyed and said "are you really". I hung up and they let me go.
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 07:39 am Post Subject: Person who caused my accident...
The person driving their car the wrong way down a one-way street & straight into a six lane intersection wasn't drunk. I would bet money he was texting. There's just no excuse for not even hesitating before you plow into an intersection like that. If he'd been looking, he would've noticed the traffic signals pointed the other direction or at least the cars in the road. My car is totalled but I'm not dead. Put down the cell phones people... pay attention to the road.
I wouldn't be suprised to see insurance companies lobbying to have texting while driving made illegal. Then they could exclude coverage for texting related accidents like DWI's.
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 01:26 pm Post Subject:
Ive seen a study on texting and cell phone use while driving and the conclusing was that for most people, cell phone usage while driving was the equalivent of Driving while intoxicated and texting while driving was 4x worse. It should definetly be illegal!
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 03:05 pm Post Subject:
From the study:
""We found that people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit” of 0.08 percent, which is the minimum level that defines illegal drunken driving in most U.S. states"
"Participants followed a simulated pace car that braked intermittently."
"Both handheld and hands-free cell phones impaired driving, with no significant difference in the degree of impairment."
"That “calls into question driving regulations that prohibited handheld cell phones and permit hands-free cell phones,” the researchers write."
Or... maybe it calls into question the minimum limit of DUI.
Here is what you _don't_ see commented on from those studies:
"Drews says the lack of accidents among the study’s drunken drivers was surprising. He and Strayer speculate that because simulated drives were conducted during mornings, participants who got drunk were well-rested and in the “up” phase of intoxication. In reality, 80 percent of all fatal alcohol-related accidents occur between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. when drunken drivers tend to be fatigued. Average blood-alcohol levels in those accidents are twice 0.08 percent. Forty percent of the roughly 42,000 annual U.S. traffic fatalities involve alcohol."
"While none of the study’s intoxicated drivers crashed, their hard, late braking is “predictive of increased accident rates over the long run,” the researchers wrote."
WHAT??!!! No people at .08 BAL even caused an accident??!!! "Predictive".... a fancy word for "we really don't know".
"Strayer says he expects criticism “suggesting that we are trivializing drunken-driving impairment, but it is anything but the case. We don't think people should drive while drunk, nor should they talk on their cell phone while driving.”"
Ah... now we get some truth! First... this is one of those "studies" where you can get the numbers to mean anything... especially if you include so little data and combine it with unrelated things. I know, lets put 40 baby killers behind the wheel instead of drunk people. If they test better then people on cell phones then cell phone use while driving is worse then killing babies. As mentioned, no intoxicated people caused an accident in the study. So this proves people who talk on cell phones while driving are no worse then.... people _who don't cause accidents_. Read that again. No really, read that again. One more time. But let's compare people who use cell phones while driving to people no one can like. Then we can use sensational headlines to make it look like our study really told us something.
"Drews says he and Strayer compared the impairment of motorists using cell phones to drivers with a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level because they wanted to determine if the risk of driving while phoning was comparable to the drunken driving risk considered unacceptable."
Yeah, everyone who believes _that_ was the reason, please stand up. It wasn't because their initial reason for doing the test was to get in the news. That probably had _nothing_ to do with it. I'm sure if they spend all of their time and money and what they set out to prove was false that they would have just walked away from it all with nothing.
Is talking on the phone while driving distracting? I would _certainly_ say so. It listening to the radio distracting? Yup! Is talking to someone else in the vehicle distracting? Double yup... probably just as much as talking on the phone while driving. Is looking out the window distracting? Well of course it is. While they had everything set up why did they not test these things as well? Would it not make sense to have a well rounded chart to compare other things to talking on the phone? Of course... but then it would not have been as sensational and it might have shown the _level_ of distraction while on the phone was actually quite low.
I handle a _lot_ of auto accident claims. Being on the phone is almost never an issue. But of course people not paying attention is the issue 99% of the time.
Here is my personal take on the situation... texting on the phone is completely different then talking on the phone while driving. I think texting should be illegal in all 50 states and I think law enforcement should be able to pull someone over just for this reason. But texting _is_ different then talking on the phone. Don't confuse the two.
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 06:42 pm Post Subject: laws
I don't think you should talk on your cell phone OR text while you're driving. I'm not saying I never have..I'm just saying, even for a split second, you can miss something or get into an accident, etc. If feasible, you should pull over (into a parking lot, somewhere..) and talk on your cell.
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