Your compliance with traffic laws directly relates to your likelihood of financial liability if you get into a crash. Drivers who break the law or do things that are obviously unsafe could end up declared responsible for any collision that they experience, even if they believe they didn’t directly cause the crash.
Police officers have to make decisions based on the scene of the crash of the statements made by the drivers involved in any witnesses. Frequently, accusations of misconduct will influence what a police officer determines in their crash report.
If you believe that the other driver texted prior to the crash, could that lead to an officer determining that they are at fault for your wreck?
Kentucky criminalizes texting while driving
A police officer may name someone as at fault for a crash because they broke the law or were negligent. Texting while driving meets both of those standards. It is negligent because a reasonable person would agree that it is an unsafe habit, and it is also a violation of Kentucky state law.
It is illegal to manually use a mobile device while in control of a motor vehicle. If phone records or traffic cameras confirm that the other driver had their phone in their hands or was actively using their device at the time of the crash, that could absolutely play a role in the police officer’s determination of fault for your wreck.
If you suspect something, you need to speak up
Police officers can’t divine what caused your crash if they don’t have all of the information. You may intrinsically want to avoid accusing the other party, as children are socialized from a young age not to be tattletales.
However, the accuracy of a police officer’s reconstruction of the crash and their determination of fault relies heavily on accessing accurate information about what happened prior to the collision. If you saw someone with their phone in their hands, you need to alert the officer to that suspicion so that they can properly investigate.
Establishing who is at fault for a distracted driving car crash will make it easier for you to get compensation for property damage and injury-related expenses.
