Don't Text Someone You Know is Driving

A New Jersey appellate court held that a person who sends a text to someone the sender knows is driving, and if the texting distracts the recipient and causes an injury, the person who sent the text message may be held liable. Specifically, the court held:

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 . . .

This all came up in the case of Kyle Best and Shannon Colonna. The two were exchanging texts while Mr. Best was driving his truck in New Jersey in 2009. Because he was distracted by the texts, he lost control of his truck and struck a married couple riding on the their large cruising motorcycle. Each of them lost a leg as a result, and sued Mr. Best and Ms. Colonna.

There is no similar rule in California, although an argument could be made under California's general negligence laws.

Pete Clancy is an Oakland personal injury attorney.