Now that Grand Prairie has just joined Arlington and 26 other cities in Texas in restricting texting while driving to prevent crashes caused by distracted drivers, I wanted to address this serious problem again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oeCUM2Alaw
Texas in one of only 10 states that still allows this extremely dangerous practice for drivers over 18 years old or all drivers near schools, and virtually unlimited cell phone use. Individual cities now have to pass ordinances prohibiting or curtailing texting and phoning while driving. I hope that other cities, including Fort Worth and Dallas, do so as well.
The decision by Grand Prairie to enact its own ordinance came up after a similar measure failed in the 2013 Texas Legislature. The bill passed the Texas House but was killed in the Senate. Governor Perry vetoed the law that had been passed in the 2011 session.
Texas law prohibits drivers younger than 18 from using cell phones and other handheld communications devices and bans all drivers from using them in school zones.
Grand Prairie’s new ordinance still allows the driver to text while his vehicle is stopped, out of moving lanes of a roadway, make telephone conversations, dial numbers and use car-mounted GPS.
We have had to represent many people who were injured when the other driver was texting. We hear the defendant driver say all the time that “I never saw you.”
If you have been injured in an automobile or truck collision that you believe was caused by a driver who was texting or otherwise distracted, you should consider hiring a personal injury lawyer in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He can request the other driver’s cell phone records and take his deposition, asking him detailed questions about whether or not he was talking on the phone, surfing the net, Facebooking, or texting in the seconds just before impact.
If the driver (and his attorney) refuse to divulge those records, the attorney can subpoena the cell phone records from the phone company. We have been successful and proving liability by doing so.
Here are some related articles I’ve posted:
/texting-while-driving/