Tweet
What. The. Fuck.
A state appeals court ruled today that a teenage girl who texted a friend moments before he crashed his pickup truck into a couple riding a motorcycle together through Morris County, causing each of them to lose parts of a leg, cannot be held liable for their injuries.
But two members of the three-judge panel – in what some say is the first ruling of its kind -- said texters have a special responsibility when it comes to the safety of others on the road.
“We conclude that a person sending text messages has a duty not to text someone who is driving if the texter knows, or has special reason to know, the recipient will view the text while driving,” Superior Court Appellate Division Judge Victor Ashrafi wrote.
Ashrafi was joined in the decision by Judge Michael Guadagno. It upholds a Morris County Superior Court judge’s decision tossing out legal claims filed against Shannon Colonna of Rockaway, who was 17 at the time of the September 2009 crash.
Judge Marianne Espinosa, while concurring with the decision to free Colonna from liability in the lawsuit, disagreed with her colleagues’ decision to extend a special duty or responsibility to those who knowingly text drivers.
Colonna, now 21, said she did not know that Kyle Best of Wharton was driving when she sent him a single text on Sept. 21, 2009 while he was driving home from his job as a swimming instructor at the Randolph YMCA. The two had just started seeing one another socially but were not boyfriend and girlfriend.
Some 25 seconds after Colonna sent the text, Best returned one of his own. Moments later, Best, then 18, crossed the double center line of Hurd Street in Mine Hill and crashed into Linda and David Kubert as they were coming around a curve.
The collision nearly severed the left leg of David Kubert, who was driving, and shattered his wife’s left leg. Best pulled over and called 911. The Kuberts have settled their legal case against Best.
Cell phone records showed that Best and Colonna had texted one another 62 times that day. In a 12-hour period, Best had sent or received 180 text messages and Colonna, in a pretrial deposition, said she texted 100 times a day on average.
“I’m a young teenager,” she said during the deposition. “That’s what we do.”
Colonna’s attorney, Joseph McGlone, argued – and the judges agreed -- that his client was unaware that Best was driving when she sent him a text, the contents of which have not been publicly revealed.
The Kuberts’ attorney, Stephen “Skippy” Weinstein, claimed Colonna “aided and abetted” Best’s texting, which is illegal in New Jersey, and had a duty not to text someone who is driving.
Attorney Stephen "Skippy" Weinstein praised an appeals court decision that holds texters responsible if they knowingly distract a driver
Weinstein was disappointed in the panel’s decision to remove the Kuberts’ claims against Colonna from the lawsuit. He said he’ll decide in coming days whether to appeal.
But, Weinstein said, he was heartened that the judges created a new legal responsibility that is akin to making texters “electronically present” in the car.
“The Kuberts lost the ability to put that claim to a jury,” Weinstein said. “But they are encouraged by the fact that what they did could help people in the future.”
The judges likened the relationship between the texter and the riding public to a passenger who puts a piece of paper in front of a driver to distract him.
“When the sender knows that the text will reach the driver while operating a vehicle, the sender has a relationship to the public who use the roadways similar to that of a passenger physically present in the vehicle,” Ashrafi wrote. “As we have stated, a passenger must avoid distracting the driver. The remote sender of a text who knows the recipient is then driving must do the same.”
The judges noted that creating a legal responsibility for texting to drivers might make the public more aware of potentially dangerous consequences.
“Just as the public has learned the dangers of drinking and driving through a sustained campaign and enhanced criminal penalties and civil liability, the hazards of texting when on the road, or to someone who is on the road, may become part of the public consciousness when the liability of those involved matches the seriousness of the harm,” Ashrafi wrote.
A state appeals court ruled today that a teenage girl who texted a friend moments before he crashed his pickup truck into a couple riding a motorcycle together through Morris County, causing each of them to lose parts of a leg, cannot be held liable for their injuries.
But two members of the three-judge panel – in what some say is the first ruling of its kind -- said texters have a special responsibility when it comes to the safety of others on the road.
“We conclude that a person sending text messages has a duty not to text someone who is driving if the texter knows, or has special reason to know, the recipient will view the text while driving,” Superior Court Appellate Division Judge Victor Ashrafi wrote.
Ashrafi was joined in the decision by Judge Michael Guadagno. It upholds a Morris County Superior Court judge’s decision tossing out legal claims filed against Shannon Colonna of Rockaway, who was 17 at the time of the September 2009 crash.
Judge Marianne Espinosa, while concurring with the decision to free Colonna from liability in the lawsuit, disagreed with her colleagues’ decision to extend a special duty or responsibility to those who knowingly text drivers.
Colonna, now 21, said she did not know that Kyle Best of Wharton was driving when she sent him a single text on Sept. 21, 2009 while he was driving home from his job as a swimming instructor at the Randolph YMCA. The two had just started seeing one another socially but were not boyfriend and girlfriend.
Some 25 seconds after Colonna sent the text, Best returned one of his own. Moments later, Best, then 18, crossed the double center line of Hurd Street in Mine Hill and crashed into Linda and David Kubert as they were coming around a curve.
The collision nearly severed the left leg of David Kubert, who was driving, and shattered his wife’s left leg. Best pulled over and called 911. The Kuberts have settled their legal case against Best.
Cell phone records showed that Best and Colonna had texted one another 62 times that day. In a 12-hour period, Best had sent or received 180 text messages and Colonna, in a pretrial deposition, said she texted 100 times a day on average.
“I’m a young teenager,” she said during the deposition. “That’s what we do.”
Colonna’s attorney, Joseph McGlone, argued – and the judges agreed -- that his client was unaware that Best was driving when she sent him a text, the contents of which have not been publicly revealed.
The Kuberts’ attorney, Stephen “Skippy” Weinstein, claimed Colonna “aided and abetted” Best’s texting, which is illegal in New Jersey, and had a duty not to text someone who is driving.
Attorney Stephen "Skippy" Weinstein praised an appeals court decision that holds texters responsible if they knowingly distract a driver
Weinstein was disappointed in the panel’s decision to remove the Kuberts’ claims against Colonna from the lawsuit. He said he’ll decide in coming days whether to appeal.
But, Weinstein said, he was heartened that the judges created a new legal responsibility that is akin to making texters “electronically present” in the car.
“The Kuberts lost the ability to put that claim to a jury,” Weinstein said. “But they are encouraged by the fact that what they did could help people in the future.”
The judges likened the relationship between the texter and the riding public to a passenger who puts a piece of paper in front of a driver to distract him.
“When the sender knows that the text will reach the driver while operating a vehicle, the sender has a relationship to the public who use the roadways similar to that of a passenger physically present in the vehicle,” Ashrafi wrote. “As we have stated, a passenger must avoid distracting the driver. The remote sender of a text who knows the recipient is then driving must do the same.”
The judges noted that creating a legal responsibility for texting to drivers might make the public more aware of potentially dangerous consequences.
“Just as the public has learned the dangers of drinking and driving through a sustained campaign and enhanced criminal penalties and civil liability, the hazards of texting when on the road, or to someone who is on the road, may become part of the public consciousness when the liability of those involved matches the seriousness of the harm,” Ashrafi wrote.
Comment