WASHINGTON-A Mississippi woman filed a $15 million lawsuit in state court alleging a driver talking on his cell phone ran a red light and killed her husband. But while individuals and their employers find themselves in the line of fire in distracted-driving suits, wireless vendors have some protection.
The Mississippi lawsuit, filed June 4 in Leflore County Circuit Court by Jill Warner, seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. In support of the latter damages, the lawsuit cites a 1997 study by The New England Journal of Medicine that found talking on wireless handsets while driving increases the risk of a collision fourfold.
The incident, according to the lawsuit, occurred March 21, when the plaintiff’s husband, Gregory Warner, was hit by a vehicle allegedly driven by Michael Cannon, owner of a car dealership in Mississippi. Warner was taken to University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he died of injuries. The 43-year-old Warner leaves behind a wife and two children.
“There are two sides to every story,” said Bill Patterson, a lawyer for Cannon.
Meantime, WRAL TV of Raleigh, N.C., reported a truck driver pleaded guilty last Thursday to misdemeanor death by motor vehicle in connection with a crash that killed 6-year-old Sheila Hernandez in January. Prosecutors said Gary Garnett, a driver for Mountaire Farms, was reaching for his cell phone when his truck rammed into the back of the bus Hernandez was boarding.
Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt did not return calls for comment
Garnett, who faced a maximum four-month prison term, will not face jail time under the plea agreement.
On a related front, there have been settlement talks in a suit filed in Robeson County Superior Court by Maria Hernandez, the mother of the young girl killed in the accident, against Mountaire Farms of North Carolina. Maria Hernandez was seriously injured in the crash while trying to shield her daughter. Some of the children on the school bus were also injured when Garnett’s truck crashed into the rear of the bus.
Garnett reportedly had a 1997 felony conviction and several driving offenses.
At least one court has said handset manufacturers are not liable in car wrecks. The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed a lower state court ruling that held Cingular Wireless L.L.C. was not responsible in a personal injury lawsuit that claimed a driver talking on a cell phone caused a car accident.
Driver distraction has become a major safety issue for the general public and a public-relations nightmare for the mobile-phone industry.
But wireless carriers are anything but unified on how to curb distracted driving, a problem not unique to popular mobile phones but one that nonetheless is most associated with the cellular industry.
While major studies conclude talking on cell phones while behind the wheel increases the chance of accidents, other research indicates hands-free units do not significantly reduce risk.
The Bush administration has focused driver-safety efforts on teens, the same strategy aggressively pursued by Cingular Wireless L.L.C.
After investigating a 2002 crash in which five adults were killed after a young driver on a cell phone lost control of her Jeep Grand Cherokee, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended a new, federally funded media campaign aimed at novice drivers.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration later hired Ogilvy Public Relations to develop an ad campaign on driver safety aimed at teenagers.
Rae Tyson, a NHTSA spokesman, said the agency plans to issue new driver-distraction findings later this year based on computer simulation and on-road studies. RCR
