Texting and Driving Truck Accidents in Southlake
Texting on a cell phone is a form of distracted driving that could cause a serious truck collision, leaving you with physical injury. State law prohibits this behavior under its traffic code, and violations by other drivers that cause you injury could entitle you to financial compensation through a civil lawsuit. Contact our team to learn more about these types of lawsuits and how a skilled attorney could help with texting and driving truck accidents in Southlake.
The Texting and Driving Law
Texas Transportation Code § 545.4251 prohibits the use of a cell phone or a similar device to either read, write, or send a message while driving a truck. Violations are a misdemeanor that can carry fines of up to $4,000. However, some limited exceptions for texting while driving exist, including the following uses:
- Using a cell phone through a hands-free method
- Operating a GPS or another navigation system
- Reporting illegal activity
- Contacting emergency help
- Checking traffic and road conditions
- Playing music from the device
While these uses could serve as an affirmative defense to a violation of Texas’ texting while driving law, the use of a cell phone while operating a truck that causes an accident in Southlake could still create liability for a civil lawsuit.
Liability for Truck Accidents When Texting and Driving
A violation of traffic laws could be admissible as evidence of a trucker’s breach of their duty of care in a negligence claim under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 72.053. To have a negligence claim involving texting and driving, the injured person would need to prove it was a cause of the truck accident in Southlake and their related damages.
Liability could belong to the truck driver whose texting was a cause of the collision. However, other parties could also have liability, such as, other drivers or their employers. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 72.054 extends liability to employers for the negligence of their employees when operating a commercial vehicle within the scope of employment.
It is also possible for the injured person to have contributory fault for the events that caused the collision. The proportionate responsibility statute applies in these situations by reducing an injured person’s compensation by their percentage of fault. When the injured person’s fault is greater than 50 percent, they cannot recover compensation for their damages.
Call Us to Recover Financial Compensation After a Texting and Driving Truck Accident in Southlake
Recovering financial compensation for injuries from texting and driving truck accidents in Southlake could be done through available claims against a driver’s insurance policy. However, these policy limits are not always large enough to cover the full extent of a person’s injuries. An injury lawsuit is often the next available process for recovering compensation for related damages.
A lawyer could be helpful in navigating this process by filing necessary complaints and related motions. An experienced attorney could also gather the proper evidence to support claims of negligence involving texting and driving. For example, they could seek phone records from a defendant’s phone company to review any communications that took place at or immediately before the accident. Beyond building an effective strategy for the case, a Southlake truck accident lawyer could evaluate settlement offers and other important decisions about proceeding to trial with your case. Get a case review by calling our firm today.