Driving While Using a Cell Phone: Serious Negligence. Should We Also Punish the Employer?
Car Accidents can be avoided if everyone uses proper care. The problem is that we are human and we err. Often we go beyond just making careless mistakes, but do things that personal injury attorneys love: reckless behavior. So what is the difference between reckless behavior and negligent? Under definition, negligence equates to just breaching a duty owed—in essence being stupid: day dreaming through a red light, grabbing that spilling coffee as you hit the yellow light that turned red, simply missing the big red stop sign, or playing with the radio as you crash into the rear end of the family wagon on the highway. These are the mistakes we make as drivers. The problem is when we do the next level of culpability: encountering a dangerous situation that you know to be dangerous, and do it anyway—that is recklessness. This is a very fine line to adjudicate. Is it reckless to drive a car after you have been drinking—many think so. In fact, public policy finds that we want to discourage this behavior so much we will assign punishing damages to those persons. Elements of punitive damages are designed to punish drivers or their employers for conduct that is “reprehensible.”
We find it reprehensible to get intoxicated and drive a deadly weapon. We find it reprehensible to shoot a gun into a crowd thinking we will miss. We find it reprehensible for a truck driver to do crystal methamphetamine and drive for 48 hours straight, or for airline pilot to cockpit the airplane after a few beers. So, the question begs: is it reprehensible to drive a vehicle using a cell phone? We know it is dangerous. We know it is distracting, but yet most of us do it. Cell phones while driving cause deaths. In California last year, the engineer on a train was “texting” on his cell phone when the train collided with another. Reprehensible? Yes. What do you think?
Employers also must be careful not to condone or encourage cell phone use for its employees on the road. The consequences are dire.
Accident, Commentary, Legal Debate, Nevada Law, Vehicle Accidents