Distracted driving is now the leading cause of preventable motor-vehicle crashes in Pennsylvania. Siddons Law Firm, PLLC represents people injured by drivers who were texting, on the phone, manipulating in-vehicle screens, eating, grooming, or otherwise not paying attention to the road.
What Counts as Distracted Driving?
Pennsylvania’s distracted-driving statute (75 Pa.C.S. § 3316) prohibits the use of an interactive wireless communication device for sending, reading, or writing a text message or email while driving. Beyond that statute, driver distraction takes three forms recognized in personal-injury practice:
- Visual distraction — eyes off the road (looking at phone, GPS, billboard, in-vehicle screen, or passenger)
- Manual distraction — hands off the wheel (eating, drinking, reaching, grooming)
- Cognitive distraction — mind off the driving task (heated phone conversation, daydreaming, intense argument with passenger)
Texting while driving combines all three. It is statistically the most dangerous distracted-driving behavior — and the most provable in litigation because of cell-phone records.
Proving Distraction
Proving the at-fault driver was distracted requires evidence the driver typically does not volunteer:
- Cell-phone records obtained by subpoena, showing call/text/data activity at the time of crash
- Phone forensics on the device itself (timestamps of app usage, photos, social-media posts, messages)
- Vehicle event-data-recorder (EDR) data showing braking, steering, and speed in the seconds before impact
- Surveillance video from nearby businesses, traffic cameras, or dashcams
- Eyewitness accounts
- Police reports and field statements
- Social-media activity contemporaneous with the crash
Phone records are routinely destroyed within 60-180 days unless preserved. We send spoliation letters as soon as we are retained.
Common Crash Patterns
Distracted driving produces a few recognizable crash patterns:
- Rear-end collisions where the at-fault driver never braked (no skid marks, no avoidance maneuver, EDR shows no brake input)
- Run-off-road and single-vehicle crashes
- Sideswipes and lane-departure crashes
- Pedestrian and cyclist strikes — particularly devastating because the distracted driver never saw the victim
- Failure-to-stop crashes at red lights and stop signs
Common Injuries
The injuries vary with the crash type but distracted-driving impacts often involve no braking at all, meaning higher closing speeds and more serious harm:
- Whiplash and cervical disc injuries
- Traumatic brain injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Multiple fractures
- Internal organ injury
- Wrongful death
Punitive Damages
Where the at-fault driver’s distraction rose to the level of recklessness — for example, repeated, prolonged texting while driving at high speed in heavy traffic — punitive damages may be available. Pennsylvania allows punitive damages for conduct that is “outrageous” and shows reckless indifference to the safety of others. We evaluate punitive-damage claims on every distracted-driving case where the facts support them.
Statute of Limitations
Two years from the date of the crash. The distraction proof itself can take months to develop because of subpoena and forensic timelines, so retain counsel quickly.
Free Case Evaluation
If you have been hurt by a distracted driver in Pennsylvania, contact our office for a free, confidential evaluation. There is no cost to discuss your potential claim, and there is no fee unless we recover compensation.