Arkansas roads are the third most dangerous in the nation in terms of fatalities, even though a relatively small percentage of these are alcohol-related. Due to the epidemic of distracted driving accidents over the past few years, Arkansas is one of the few states that imposes potential jail time for the use of electronic devices while driving.
Distracted Driving Restrictions
In Arkansas, school bus drivers and drivers under 21 are prohibited from using any hand-held electronic device while driving. Surprisingly, this is only a secondary offense for drivers under 18 – a minor driving while using a hand-held electronic device cannot be pulled over for it unless the officer witnesses him committing another offense. Drivers under 18 are also banned from using hands-free cell phones, although this offense is also secondary.
Texting and driving is forbidden for all drivers except by emergency personnel or by ordinary drivers in emergency situations. Other distracting activities can justify a citation if they are unreasonably distracting under the circumstances. In addition, cities and countries may pass their own local distracted driving laws.
Penalties
In Arkansas, you can be fined $100 for distracted driving and you can be imprisoned for up to 10 days. Typically, additional factors, such as multiple prior citations, are usually present when jail time is imposed.
In the Event of an Accident
Even if you don’t get cited for distracted driving, this offense could become even more expensive if you cause an accident while engaging in such behavior. Although in some states the violation of distracted driving law will render the defendant automatically negligent in a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit (and therefore likely liable for damages), in Arkansas the victim must prove that the defendant’s distracted driving conduct was negligent under the particular circumstances of the accident.
If the defendant’s conduct was negligent, and if this negligence was a substantial factor in causing the accident, the court will determine whether or not the victim was also negligent. If not, the defendant must pay 100 percent of the damages he caused. If the victim was also negligent but less than 50 percent at fault, the defendant’s damages will be reduced in proportion to the victim’s degree of fault. If the victim was at least 50 percent at fault, however, the defendant will pay nothing.
Criminal Penalties
Normally you risk only financial penalties if you cause a distracted driving accident (damages in a lawsuit). If your negligence was serious enough under the circumstances, however, you could be arrested and charged with a crime. If your conduct, taken as a whole, was outrageous – speeding down an icy decline while texting, perhaps, or passing a school bus while children are alighting – you might be charged with negligent homicide if someone dies in the crash, or with a lesser felony if someone is seriously injured.
Being charged with a crime will not protect you from facing a lawsuit as well – in fact, conviction of a crime will make it easier for the victim to win a lawsuit against you based on the same conduct.
– Updated through September 1, 2016