Distracted driving is a common and preventable cause of serious motor vehicle accidents in New York. A driver who looks away from the road for a few seconds to read a text, check a navigation app, or answer a call puts everyone around them at risk. When that decision causes a serious collision, it is not an accident in the true sense. It is the foreseeable result of a choice the law prohibits.
Subin Law represents people seriously injured in distracted driving accidents in New York. These cases focus on establishing exactly what the driver was doing, what the law required, and how the gap between those caused the crash.
How Distraction Causes Serious Crashes
Driver distraction includes behaviors where the driver’s attention was not on the road when it should have been.
Handheld device use is the most commonly documented form of distraction, but in-vehicle infotainment systems, navigation devices, and even hands-free communications create cognitive distraction that reduces a driver’s ability to respond to changing conditions. A driver engaged in conversation, by phone or with a passenger, processes less visual information than one focused on the road. At highway speeds, the consequences of reduced awareness are severe and immediate.
Legal Responsibility
New York law is specific about what constitutes illegal distraction behind the wheel, and those violations create a direct legal basis for negligence claims.
New York Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1225-d prohibits using handheld electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle and designates the violation as a primary offense. This means law enforcement can stop and cite a driver for device use alone, without any other traffic violation. A citation issued at the crash scene creates documentary evidence of the violation, strengthening the negligence claim. Even without a citation, cell phone records showing device use at the time of the crash provide strong direct evidence.
Under New York common law negligence, a driver who violates a traffic safety statute and causes injury as a result is presumed negligent under the negligence per se doctrine. That presumption shifts the burden to the defendant to explain why the violation did not cause the harm.
Where an employer required an employee to make calls or respond to communications while driving, the employer bears independent liability for the resulting harm under New York common law respondeat superior principles.
Building the Case
Distracted driving cases require quickly securing documentary records of the distraction. Cell phone records showing device activity at the crash time require legal process to obtain and become harder to secure as time passes. Traffic camera footage, dashboard recordings, and surveillance from nearby properties capture the collision and moments before it. Witness accounts of the driver’s behavior just before the crash are often critical to establishing what the driver was doing.
Police accident reports often note device use or cite the driver for handheld device violations. These records, combined with physical evidence of the collision, form the foundation of a distracted driving negligence claim.
Every case at Subin Law is built for trial from the start. In distracted driving cases, where the evidentiary window is narrow, preparation begins immediately.
What These Cases Involve
Distracted driving accidents cause traumatic brain injury, spinal cord damage, fractures, soft tissue injuries, and fatalities. The force involved in a collision in which a driver had no opportunity to brake or respond can result in injuries across the full spectrum of severity.
These claims are contested by insurance carriers, who challenge whether distraction occurred and caused the crash. Building a record that establishes the driver’s conduct and links it to the collision requires thorough investigation and early preservation of evidence. receives focused attention and a strategy built around its specific facts. Consultations are free and confidential. No attorney fees are charged unless compensation is recovered.
Contact Subin Law to discuss your case.
