Colorado Springs Personal Injury Lawyers Want Tougher “Distracted Driving” Laws in Colorado

In June of last year, Governor Ritter signed a law making it a crime to “text” while driving. This also includes emails, tweets, Facebook updates and other activities that require the use of a cell phone or handheld device.  Now that the program has been in place for nearly a year many Colorado Springs personal injury lawyers have become quite savvy on the law.

Personal injury lawyers have seen a few violations in the metropolitan area since the law went into effect in December 2009, and a few of these resulted in lawsuits by injured victims.  But this law didn’t affect everyone equally.  For drivers younger than 18, the law prohibits any use of a cell phone while driving. 

According to Ritter, the law was enacted because “driving requires our full attention… and drivers should not be texting while behind the wheel.”  Agreed, but so many drivers still try to get away with it.  Violators will be fined $50 for a first offense and $100 for a second, which is a relatively small step when you consider that the law doesn’t even require adults to use an earpiece or Bluetooth device while driving.  For parents of children like 9-year old Erica Forney, who was struck and killed by a distracted driver on a cell phone, the law doesn’t go far enough in preventing unnecessary deaths.

Since the law was enacted, the first known offender was a 19-year old girl from Aurora, who crashed her Mitsubishi Eclipse into a median on January 3^rd.  She later admitted the crash occurred because she was texting while driving.  Surprisingly, while she was cited with a violation, the incident didn’t even result in points on her license.

More needs to be done to keep drivers safe on Colorado roads and stronger action needs to be taken against distracted drivers.  Colorado Springs personal injury lawyers say they would like the fines to become stricter and the penalties to become more serious as time goes on but given the number of people now using cell phones for everything, it cannot be soon enough. 

If you’ve been injured in an accident that was caused by a distracted driver in Colorado, consult with the experienced personal injury lawyers at Clawson & Clawson, LLP.