Car Accidents

The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that a man who was injured when his father drove into him, pinning him between two vehicles, may sue for damages. A trial court dismissed the lawsuit in Robert L. Clark, Jr. et al vs. Robert L. Clark, Sr., based on a state law that bars suit between family members in certain circumstances. The Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the trial court’s dismissal based on a different reading of the state law, and the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed the appeals court’s decision.

Robert Clark, Sr. was driving a car on September 5, 2007, in which his son, 46 year-old Robert Clark, Jr., was a passenger. The son got out of the car when they got to their destination in order to direct his father into a parking spot. He stood several feet in front of the car and motioned his father forward into a parking space. Once the car was fully in the spot, the son motioned to his father to stop the car. The father pressed the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. The car lurched forward into Robert Clark Jr., pinning him between his father’s vehicle and the adjacent vehicle and causing extensive injuries to his legs.

Robert Clark, Jr. and his wife, Debra Clark, sued Robert Clark, Sr. for negligence. The trial court granted summary judgment for Robert Sr. based on his assertion of the Indiana Guest Statute as an affirmative defense. The Guest Statute bars suit for injuries against the operator of a vehicle by a family member of the operator, or a hitchhiker, provided the injury occurred while the person “was being transported without payment in or upon” the vehicle. The statute allows an exception for “wanton or willful misconduct” by the driver.
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Drivers have dealt with distractions since the invention of the automobile. The explosive growth in the use of cell phones, however, has compounded the risks presented by distracted driving. Drivers who use their cell phones to talk, send text messages, or even read e-mail or web pages cause thousands of accidents around the country every year. A member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the federal agency that investigates accidents and recommends safety regulations, went so far as the call distracted driving an “epidemic.” People injured by a distracted driver generally have a clear claim for damages from that driver. While courts have rejected attempts to recover damages from cell phone companies, plaintiffs have recovered from drivers’ employers, when the driver was engaged in work-related activities.

Distracted driving accounted for as many as 3,092 deaths in traffic accidents in 2010, according to the federal government. It was a factor in up to eighteen percent of all injury accidents that year. The government identifies three types of distraction:

– Manual: where the driver takes one or both hands off the wheel.
– Visual: where the driver is not watching the road.
– Cognitive: where the driver’s attention (or mind) is not on the road.

Studies have suggested that even the use of a hands-free device like a headset does not improve overall safety, because it does not reduce cognitive distraction.

Indiana, like most states, has enacted laws restricting the use of cell phones while driving. Thirty-nine states, including Indiana, and the District of Columbia prohibit text messaging while driving. Indiana also prohibits drivers under the age of eighteen from any cell phone use while driving. Other laws include a ban on all handheld cell phone use (ten states and D.C.), and handheld cell phone use by school bus drivers (nineteen states and D.C.) No state has a ban on all cell phone use, including hands-free devices, although the NTSB recommended such a ban last year.
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Articles Posted in Car Accidents

Indiana Court Allows Son’s Suit Against Father for Auto Accident Injuries to Proceed

Liability of Drivers and Their Employers in Distracted Driving Accidents