Before You Send That Text Message, Make Sure They Aren't Driving...

A case from New Jersey that has recently been brought up in the news seems to be the first of its kind in America.  A college student in New Jersey may potentially be held liable for texting her boyfriend, while she knew he was driving -- and allegedly, this caused him to crash into a couple on a motorcycle.  Both the man and woman on the motorcycle lost their left legs during the wreck.

On May 25, a Superior Court judge will determine whether or not the college student, Shannon Colonna, will be added to the suit against the driver, her boyfriend, Kyle Best.

New Jersey is one of 19 states in which it is illegal to text while driving.

The attorney for the couple on the motorcycle argued that if a person texts someone that they know is driving, and texting while driving is dangerous and violates the law, he believes a jury should decide.  He argued that the numerous text messages (about 60) that they had sent throughout the day made Colonna "electronically present" in the car.

The man who was driving and hit the couple on the motorcycle, Best, testified that he was not actually texting when he crossed a lane of traffic and hit the couple, but he was glancing down at a text sent from Colonna.


Another argument the lawyer for the motorcyclists made is that passengers in cars who encourage drivers to ignore traffic violations can be held liable for accidents -- he believes that this is the same situation, as Colonna knew that texting and driving was breaking the state law.

I do have to agree with the defending lawyer in this case -- the only person to be held liable here is the driver.  It is completely unreasonable to suggest that Colonna knew exactly when Best would look at the message she sent him.  There is no proof, or reason, that she had an intent of him looking at her text message while he was driving, and then subsequently causing an accident.

It would not surprise me, however, if in the near future there are laws put into place about liability being placed on those who text people while they are driving.  At this rate, with the fast and continuous advancement of technology, we have GPS capabilities on smart phones that can track where the person you are talking to is.  Maybe in the future there will be some sort of limit on the speed they are going that someone is allowed to text another person -- if they are going over 10 mph, you should know they are driving and not send them a text message.  Let's hope that doesn't happen though.

Regardless, this would all still be very unreasonable, even in the case of the smart phone GPS and what not.   A person has to literally be psychic to know exactly when the person they are sending a text message to will look down at that message, driving or not.