Text a driver in New Jersey, and you could see your day in court

[catbrooks]

(CNN) -- We've all heard the dictum: Don't text and drive. Now a New Jersey state appeals court has an addendum: Don't knowingly text a driver -- or you could be held liable if he causes a crash.Kyle Best was behind the wheel of his pickup in September 2009 driving down a rural highway when Shannon Colonna sent him a text

Comments

[erasethisworld]

If you're driving, don't use your phone. Just turn it off? Then no distractions. If you're waiting for a super important call, leave it on and pull over when you need to use it. Nothing is more important than the safety of those around you. I'm not sure how I feel about incriminating people texting drivers. Surely it's the drivers responsibility since they are driving.

[thelilyqueen]

The driver is the final gatekeeper and - yeah - should turn off or silence their phone. At the same time, while I'm not thinking we should criminalize those who text drivers I can see the argument that sending *persistent* texts when you know the person is driving and shouldn't respond is irresponsible.

[bgd_thrifty]

Yes but even if you send persistent texts, the person driving doesn't have to read them until they're no longer driving. Unlike someone physically being in your car and distracting you, there's no obligation to respond to a text message.

[thelilyqueen]

Not arguing that at all. You'll note I didn't think people persistently texting drivers should be criminalized - just that they were irresponsible.

[ebay313]

I agree with Chris Christie on this. It's the driver's responsibility. Just because someone texts you knowing you are driving doesn't mean that you have to read the text or text back.

I do know people who knowingly text people when they are driving and it annoys me. I have friends who will text me when they know I'm on my way somewhere asking where I am, how far away I am, can I pick up something on the way, or telling me to meet them somewhere else instead. It's definitely annoying and stupid if you know I'm driving to text me something you expect me to read and reply to while I'm driving. But I don't think that should be a crime or grounds for a civil lawsuit because as a driver you always have the option of ignoring it. I hear my notification alert on my phone while I'm driving, get really annoyed and read/reply after I get where I'm going. If your going to text me when you know I'm driving, expect to not get a response IMO. Just because someone texts me does not force me to immediately read the text and reply.

[paksenarrion2]

This exactly.

The onus should be on the driver. Nobody is in the car with them forcing them to pick up the phone to look at it or respond to that text message.

I agree with you and thelilyqueen. Texting someone you know is driving is irresponsible. But we all need to take personale responsibility for ourselves to not pick up the phone when we are driving.

[angelus7988]

This!

[redstar826]

uggg, no.

It's the driver's responsibility to focus on the road and not be looking at their phone

[nextdrinksonme]

Yeah, that's pretty ridiculous. The person could be sending a text reminding the driver to pick something up at the store, for example, expecting them to not look at the text until they arrived at their destination. Or while stopped at a red light or something. It's the driver's responsibility to not read the text, not the non driver's responsibility not to text them.

I hate when people text while driving, but this is really stupid.

[nesmith]

The responsibility rests on the driver not to look at/answer their phone. Period, end of sentence. I don't care how many texts another person sends, the driver has the option of not looking. People don't drive like Alex from a Clockwork Orange with their eyeballs taped open where they HAVE to look, they have the responsibility to turn their phones off, shove them in the glove compartment and turn the music up to drown them out, whatever, and if they fail to do that, it's not the fault of the other person (although if the other party knows the person is driving and starts sending text after text after text they are certainly guilty of being friggin' annoying).