Cell Phone Usage and Personal Injury
Lawsuits
Cell phone usage has increasingly
become the cause of accidents or a contributing factor, resulting in an increase
in personal injury litigation involving cell phones. When a driver is using a
cell phone at the time of an accident and the accident happens while the driver
is on company business, the phone call is a business one, or the cell phone was
provided by the company, that company will often be sued along with the
driver/employee, under a theory of "vicarious liability" for the actions of its
employee. Actual examples include:
- A jury in Miami awarded a 78 year old woman and her husband $20.78 million against a driver and his employer for injuries suffered in an automobile crash. The driver initially admitted owning a cell phone but denied using it at the time of the accident. Cell phone bills indicated otherwise and the driver finally admitted making a sales call "before" calling 911 about the accident.
- The state of Hawaii paid $1.5 million to the family of a New Jersey tourist struck by a car driven by a public school teacher, who was using her cell phone at the time.
- Salomon Smith Barney paid $500,000 in settlement to the family of a motorcyclist killed in a collision with a broker, who was on his cell phone at the time.
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