Over 3.000 Americans die each year in distracted driving-related crashes, while hundreds of thousands are injured. In North Carolina, over 20 percent of all crashes are related to distracted driving, rivalling alcohol-related crashes as the number one contributing factor to traffic accidents in North Carolina. North Carolina has enacted statewide legislated prohibiting some of the most dangerous distracted driving behavior involving the use of mobile electronic devices.
Distracted Driving Restrictions
All drivers on North Carolina roads are prohibited from reading, composing or sending text messages while driving. School bus drivers and drivers under 18 may not even talk on cell phones, including hands-free models. There is an emergency exception that allows drivers to report emergencies. There is also a “parental communication” exception for minors using cell phones.
Penalties
In North Carolina, the fine for texting while driving is $100. Court costs are added to this amount for repeat offenses. The fine for minor illegally using a cell phone while driving is only $25. No points are assessed against the driver’s license – the only penalty is financial.
In the Event of an Accident
Although the penalties for distracted driving in North Carolina are light compared to most other states, this can change quickly if you are involved in a traffic accident while engaged in this practice If someone is injured and they file a personal injury lawsuit against you, they can point to your distracted driving as evidence that you were negligent (careless) and thereby hold you liable for damages. Cell phone records, for example, could be used to prove that you were texting and driving at the time of the accident.
Distracted driving is not automatic negligence – it depends on the circumstances of the accident. Moreover, the person who sues you (another driver, a pedestrian or a passenger, for example) must prove that your distracted driving was a substantial cause of the accident in order to win a lawsuit against you.
Suppose that instead you were the one injured in an accident in which you were texting and driving or illegally using a cell phone. Your distracted driving could lose the case for you even if the other driver was 99 percent at fault for the accident. This is because North Carolina applies a draconian standard to personal injury lawsuits that is applied by only a handful of other states – the pure contributory negligence rule.
Under the pure contributory negligence rule, you will lose your lawsuit if you were even one percent at fault for the accident. If you were texting and driving at the time of the accident, and you hit a car driving the wrong way on a one-way street with its lights off at night, you will be entitled to no damages at all if the other driver can prove that your texting and driving was even one percent responsible for the accident.
Possible Criminal Penalties
In extreme cases, a distracted driver could end up in prison. North Carolina will imprison you if you cause serious injury or death through “criminal negligence”. The dividing line between ordinary negligence (which will cost you money) and criminal negligence (which could cost you your freedom) is fuzzy and depends on the circumstances of the accident.
– Updated through September 1, 2016