Texting While Driving is Very Dangerous, Especially When the Driver is a Truck Driver: New Mexico Trucking Crashes and Wrongful Deaths
Cell phone use is pervasive while driving. People have been talking on the phone while driving for over a decade, and many motor vehicle manufacturers are even creating bluetooth systems to people can continue to talk while driving. This does make it slightly safer as it allows both hands to be back on the wheel.
Which is why texting while driving is so dangerous, as even with the advent of bluetooth systems it is still very hard if not impossible to text while driving with both hands on the wheel. Because of this, texting while driving is quickly becoming just as dangerous as drunk driving and drugged driving—if not more dangerous. Many motor vehicle crashes are being caused when drivers divert their attention, eyes, and hand off the wheel to text.
This is particularly dangerous for large commercial truck drivers, like those who operate tandem trailers, big rigs, semis, flatbeds, tractor trailers, double trailers, 18-wheelers, tankers, and other large vehicles. A truck driver texting while driving just becomes an unguided missile, especially on the interstates or highways of New Mexico. If you or a loved one have been seriously injured or killed due to a commercial truck driver texting while driving, call the experienced New Mexico trucking crash attorneys at the Mark Caruso to learn how to we protect your rights to compensation by dialing (505) 308-1556 for a FREE consultation.
Texting While Driving is Against the Law for All Drivers in New Mexico
Our Legislature in New Mexico has made it illegal for anyone and everyone, except in dire emergency circumstances, to text while driving. This is provided for in NM Stat. 66-7-374, subdivision (A), which provides that “[a] person shall not read or view a text message or manually type on a handheld mobile communication device for any purpose while driving a motor vehicle . . . .”
When any driver causes a motor vehicle crash in New Mexico because he or she was driving while texting, that person will be violating this statute. Victims of that motor vehicle crash can hold that defendant negligent per se, meaning that he or she will be liable for all harm caused by violating what the statute meant to the protect.
The prohibition on texting while driving was intended to protect all motorists on the road, therefore anyone texting while driving and causing an injury will be deemed negligent under these circumstances. This applies to all commercial truck drivers as well.
Truck Drivers Have an Additional Rule Prohibiting Them From Texting While Driving
Even though NM Stat. 66-7-374 applies to all commercial truck drivers, that is New Mexico statutory law. There are also federal regulations which apply to all truck drivers no matter what state they are driving in which also prohibit truck drivers from texting while driving. The specific regulation is 49 CFR section 392.82, which provides that no driver of a commercial truck shall engage in texting while driving. The regulation also prohibits any trucking company from requiring the truck driver to text while driving.
Unlike the New Mexico statute, a violation of this regulation which causes a personal injury in a trucking crash is not automatically negligence but evidence of negligence. This means that a truck driver is not automatically liable to a victim. However, because our Legislature enacted NM Stat. 66-7-374 (something not all states have), victims of New Mexico trucking crashes have been further protected by our government and accidents like this are automatically deemed caused by the negligence of a truck driver.
Therefore, victims in New Mexico have stronger protections and rights, as long as they have an experienced trucking accident attorney that knows this.
The Mark Caruso is a Trusted, Knowledgeable, and Experienced New Mexico Trucking Crash Law Firm that Victims Need to Call to Get the Maximum Amount of Compensation They Deserve
If you or a loved one has been injured in a motor vehicle accident, call the experienced New Mexico car accident attorneys at the Mark Caruso today by dialing (505) 308-1556 You can also contact us on our website through the easy to use and convenient Contact box located by clicking here.
