In California, there are roughly 500,000 automobile collisions that take place every single year. Of that number, around 250,000 people are injured. This equates to a lot of personal injury claims from drivers and passengers alike.
However, filing a personal injury claim is not always a guaranteed way to seek recompense for damages like injuries, pain and suffering, and other expenses. There are a series of laws on the books, known as “Distracted Driving Laws,” which may greatly impact personal injury claims.
Here are a few ways that California’s Distracted Driving Laws can impact someone’s personal injury claims.
6 Ways Distracted Driving Laws Impact Personal Injury Claims
Evidence of Negligence
One of the first things any investigatory body will look at with a personal injury claim is whether or not the person(s) filing the claim was in any way responsible for the accident. With such a robust set of distracted driving laws in California, one of the main ways this can impact one’s claim is that evidence of negligence may be found. If the individual filing the claim is found to be guilty of negligence, or in some instances even suspected of it, the personal injury claim filed is nowhere near as strong as it should be, and thus this can result in a claim being denied.
Not only will a claim go nowhere, but the individual may be found liable for causing the accident. “Evidence of negligence” can include using a cell phone while driving, toying with the radio or other electronics, and other violations that distract drivers.
Hands-Free Violation Liability
California is very strict about their “hands-free” laws. Even if you are not using a phone, there are many other devices that could make a driver guilty of violating this portion of the law. As noted previously, any evidence to suggest that a driver filing a claim was violating any of California’s laws will likely result in a claim being denied, or worse; it could result in criminal liability.
These laws, and violations, are important in personal injury claims because the victim can also use them to their advantage. Of course, it’s important to note that someone filing a claim could be found at fault; however, it’s also vital to understand that a person filing a claim may truly be a victim of a distracted driver, and thus the party at fault being guilty of violating the laws will greatly strengthen the victim’s personal injury claim.
Comparative Fault Issues
California’s set of distracted driving laws are unique in that they don’t always view accidents as a binary - as in one party is fully at fault, and another party is a victim. They use what is called “comparative fault.” With this law, the investigatory body looks at all aspects of the accident(s), and they seek to potentially assign fault with the drivers of all vehicles.
So, while a driver may have been a victim of being rear-ended by someone making an illegal lane shift, “comparative fault” means that if the driver rear-ended was also on their phone or distracted, they share some fault in the accident. This can affect personal injury claims based on comparative analysis of the accident.
Distracted Driving Means Increased Penalties
Another way that California’s laws can impact personal injury claims is that they extend well past the realm of civil liability. Accidents do happen, of course, but California views negligence as having intentionality, and thus a crash can be viewed as criminal instead of accidental. So, not only will an individual’s personal injury claim be denied if they are found to have violated the distracted driving laws, but this also opens the door for potential criminal prosecution.
Again, the opposite end of this means that if you were the victim of a distracted driver, your personal injury claim becomes much stronger. Now the individual is criminally liable for causing the crash, and this all but guarantees their civil liability as well.
Long-Term Insurance Impact
One potential impact of someone violating California’s laws for distracted driving is that insurance premiums could go up quite a bit after the proverbial dust has settled on the incident. Unfortunately, this can also be true for the victim of negligence, not just the perpetrator. Of course, the party responsible for the accident will bear the brunt of expenses, especially premium spikes on their bill; but this can also affect the victim, potentially raising their rates in the long-term due to the insurance company having to pay some of the immediate damages.
Keep in mind, however, that the party responsible will end up having to pay exponentially more. Though it should be noted that someone violating the law and causing a crash has a ripple effect and even the victim may potentially end up with a long-term rate impact.
A Scale of Damages
In the world of personal injury claims and the distracted driving laws of California, things are not a simple guilty-innocent dichotomy. As mentioned previously with comparative fault, the actual cause of a collision operates on a scale. So too do the categories of negligence, damages, and the severity of someone’s claims. For instance, a person who is found to have caused the crash can be considered negligent and responsible on a sliding scale. They could be found liable, in which case personal injury claims against the driver are often smaller. Though they could also be found grossly negligent and thus claims against the party could be very large. Just as crashes themselves are on a scale, so too are the damages caused by those crashes.
The severity of the crash alone isn’t the factor that makes personal injury claims viable or not; it’s actually the negligence level of the individual who caused the crash. This is where California’s laws come into play in a major way, when deciding just how negligent the causal party was.
Conclusion
In a perfect world, everyone would drive safely, and we wouldn’t have to worry about collisions. However, we deal with a lot of crashes on the roads, and rules like California’s distracted driving laws are there to help prevent crashes and to help victims seek real restitution for injuries.
