New York Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Distracted driving is a significant cause of crashes, including fatal accidents, across the country. This type of driving occurs whenever a driver is paying attention to something other than the road, such as when a driver is talking on the cell phone, texting, eating, applying makeup, grooming themselves, drinking a beverage, adjusting the radio or GPS, or driving while fatigued or sleep deprived. If you were injured and suspect that the other driver was doing any of the foregoing before colliding with your car, you should call the experienced White Plains distracted driving attorney Mark A. Siesel. Additionally, you should be aware that the New York Times recently reported a new distracted driving hazard generated by Tesla.
Over the summer, Tesla added a software update and sent it to most of its cars in the summer of 2021. The update allows games to be played on a large touch screen in front of the dashboard, even while a car is in motion. The Governors Highway Safety Association has stated it is a concern if the game plays in front of the driver. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has reported that 2016, there have been 12 traffic deaths as the result of Tesla’s hands-free driving and drivers looking away from the road.
If you were injured because of a distracted driver, you may be able to recover damages. When we sue on your behalf, we typically need to establish the distracted driver’s negligence. We’ll need to prove it’s more likely than not: (1) the defendant owed you a duty of reasonable care, (2) breach of the duty to use reasonable care, (3) causation, and (4) actual damages. All drivers owe others with whom they share the road a duty to use reasonable care when a car is in motion.
Traffic conditions are constantly shifting and require moment-to-moment attention. In most cases, a jury will find that a driver who played games, applied makeup, ate, drank, or was otherwise distracted while operating a vehicle in motion breached his or her duty to use reasonable care. For example, if a driver was playing games while in traffic on the freeway in New York, and then rear-ended you such that you suffered serious spinal cord damage, our lawyers would probably be able to show that the driver failed to use the reasonable care required to operate the vehicle. Similarly, if a driver spilled coffee on the car while driving and was paying attention to the spilled coffee, rather than the road, and drifted into your lane, seriously injuring you, we may be able to establish a failure to use reasonable care.
Assuming we can establish negligence and you have serious injuries we can recover compensatory damages on your behalf. These are damages intended to put you back in the position you would have been in had the other driver used reasonable care and paid full attention to what was happening on the road. Damages that may be recovered include both economic and noneconomic losses such as medical bills, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, lost wages, and lost earning capacity.
If you were injured in a distracted driving accident, you have options. You should call our principal, Mark Siesel. Mr. Siesel is a tough, seasoned White Plains car accident lawyer. Due to original experience representing defendants until the mid-1990s, and for the last 25 years representing injured victims of accidents, he understands how insurance companies think and defend cases. This gives him a major advantage over most attorneys. He represents accident victims in Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens, along with Westchester, Putnam, Kings, Orange, Dutchess, Sullivan, Rockland, Bronx, and Ulster Counties. Call him at (914) 428-7386 or complete this online form.