Yes, You Can Go to Jail for Texting and Driving 

Yes, You Can Go to Jail for Texting and Driving

Yes, It Does Happen 

The laws vary from state to state. Generally, it isn’t as if police are going to see you glance at your phone and then bam! You’re in the slammer for life! The reality is that there will be a range of consequences for using handheld devices while operating a motor vehicle. While some of those consequences could be a ticket, there are certainly situations where using a handheld device while operating a motor vehicle can result in jail time and/or criminal charges. Although there’s no way to say exactly what’s going to happen to any given person who’s caught texting and driving, you can rest assured that there can potentially be some pretty serious consequences if your use of a handheld device causes a car crash–especially if that car crash results in fatal injuries. Recently, a man in Utah was charged with a third degree felony after he caused a crash while operating a motor vehicle while using a handheld device—allegedly, of course. Tragically, a young woman was killed in the crash. 

What Will the Charges Be? 

As previously mentioned, it’s not possible to say exactly what will happen to any given person if they’re caught texting while driving or if they cause a car crash due to texting while driving. But there are some possibilities. For starters, it’s possible that you will receive both criminal and civil consequences for texting and driving. Regarding criminal consequences, there may be a wide range of charges that may be filed against you and the time you could potentially spend in jail can range quite a bit. Even if you don’t think the penalty for simply texting and driving is that steep, you should avoid the practice of texting and driving altogether. The man in Utah who has been charged with a third-degree felony. Texting and driving is extremely serious, especially when it contributes to the death of another person—and it does do that, unfortunately. As previously mentioned, there may also be civil consequences for texting while driving (such as a wrongful death lawsuit), especially if the person who sustained damages files a personal injury claim. 

Avoiding Texting While Driving 

It’s important to avoid texting while driving, as it can promote safety and save lives. When you’re in the car, consider using a Bluetooth option to answer calls handsfree as an alternative to texting while driving. These days, many smartphones have settings that you can enable to automatically put your phone in Do Not Disturb mode every time you get in a vehicle. Often times, when the phone senses that you’re in the car, your phone will not receive notifications until you’re no longer driving. This can help prevent accidents as the lack of notifications will prevent drivers from looking at their phones. Another option may be silencing your phone, leaving it in your trunk, or turning it off when you get in the car. 

Avoiding Other Distractions 

Drivers should also be careful to avoid other distractions while driving. Although you should never text and drive, other forms of distracted driving are not talked about as much as they should be. We all know it’s wrong to text and drive, yet many people see no problem with using their phone to change the song or look something up on GPS. While texting and driving is dangerous, any use of a handheld device while driving is dangerous. If you need to look up directions or change the song, you should find a safe place to pull over to do that. Eating, applying make-up, and messing with the stereo are also forms of distracted driving that should be avoided. An untold number of things can happen while you’re on the road—especially when you’re travelling at high speeds where things can happen in fractions of a second. Just because you’re not texting and driving doesn’t mean that you aren’t distracted. 

Put the Phone Down; It Can Wait 

It is never a good idea to drive distracted. If you are driving distracted, and you cause an accident, you could face serious consequences—especially if the accident ends in a fatality. While most people think of distracted driving as texting and driving, it isn’t always. An untold number of serious car crashes have been caused by a distracted driver—perhaps someone was eating lunch or looking at a paper map at the time of the collision. Whatever the distraction is, it can wait. 

Injuries Happen. We’re Here to Help Make It Right.

We’ve been saying it for at least 20 years now: put that dang phone down while you’re driving! Unfortunately, people still feel entitled to use their phone while driving. If you’ve been injured because someone else decided to text and drive, Moxie Law Group is here for you. Whether you were injured in a car accident, pedestrian accident, or bike accident, our lawyers are here for you to help you get the compensation you need to recover. Contact us today to get started on your claim.

Distracted driving crashes often leave victims with serious injuries and mounting bills. If you were hurt by a texting or distracted driver in Utah, our Utah car accident attorneys can walk you through your options for recovering compensation.