Distracted Driving Accident Attorneys
Distracted Driving Accidents in Kentucky
Key Takeaways
- In 2023, NHTSA reported 3,275 people killed in distraction-affected crashes nationally, roughly 8% of all traffic fatalities that year, with cellphone use a factor in 12% of those fatal distracted crashes.
- KRS 189.292 bars texting while driving for all Kentucky drivers, with exceptions for GPS, making a call, and emergencies, and KRS 189.294 bars licensed or permitted drivers under 18 from using a personal communication device while driving except to contact emergency services.
- Under Kentucky’s negligence per se doctrine, a proven violation of a safety statute such as KRS 189.292 establishes negligence as a matter of law.
Kentucky Texting and Driving Laws
Kentucky passed its texting-while-driving ban in 2010. KRS 189.292 bars any driver of a motor vehicle in motion on the traveled portion of a roadway from writing, sending, or reading text-based communication, such as a text message, instant message, or email, on a personal communication device. The ban does not apply to a device’s GPS feature, a navigation system built into the vehicle, reading, selecting, or entering a phone number or name to make a call, an emergency or public safety vehicle operator using the device for official duties, or a text sent to report illegal activity, summon medical help or law enforcement, or prevent injury to a person or property.
For a driver under 18 with an instruction permit, intermediate license, or operator’s license, KRS 189.294 bars any use of a personal communication device while driving, except to summon medical help or law enforcement in an emergency. A stand-alone or built-in navigation system and CB or amateur radio are excluded, and manually entering information into a phone’s GPS feature counts as use.
Under KRS 189.990(30), a violation of KRS 189.292 or 189.294 carries a $25 fine for a first offense and $50 for each later offense, and 601 KAR 13:025 assigns three points to a license for texting while driving.
Negligence Per Se in a Distracted Driving Case
Under Kentucky’s negligence per se doctrine, a driver who violates a statute designed to protect others from harm, such as KRS 189.292, is negligent as a matter of law. KRS 446.070 lets a person injured by the violation of a statute recover the damages sustained because of the violation. The injured person does not have to prove separately that the driver was unreasonably careless, and still has to show the violation caused the injury.
Three Types of Distraction
The CDC describes three main types of distraction: visual distraction, taking your eyes off the road to read a text or check GPS; manual distraction, taking your hands off the wheel to eat or adjust the radio; and cognitive distraction, taking your mind off driving during a phone call or an intense conversation. Texting combines all three, which research from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute has linked to a dramatically elevated accident risk compared to undistracted driving. Hands-free phone use still produces cognitive distraction that measurably slows reaction time, enough at highway speeds to travel a significant distance without full awareness of the road ahead.
In 2023, NHTSA reported 3,275 people killed in distraction-affected crashes nationally, roughly 8% of all traffic fatalities that year, with cellphone use a factor in 12% of those fatal distracted crashes.
Distracted Driving Evidence
Evidence of distraction usually comes from several sources, since most drivers will not admit it. Phone records and carrier data obtained through formal legal discovery can show call logs, text message timestamps, and app activity at the time of the accident, and deleted messages can sometimes be recovered through the carrier.
Traffic camera footage, when preserved before it is overwritten, and independent witness accounts corroborate the phone records. In some cases, a vehicle’s event data recorder shows that a driver braked late or failed to react at a point where an attentive driver would have, which can support a distraction argument even without direct phone evidence.
Damages in a Distracted Driving Accident
An injured person in a Kentucky distracted driving accident can pursue the same damages available in any car accident case: medical expenses, lost wages and reduced earning capacity, and pain and suffering once the injuries clear Kentucky’s tort threshold under KRS 304.39-060. A negligence per se finding tied to a proven distracted driving violation, with causation shown, can streamline the liability side of the case and move the focus to documenting the full extent of the harm.
How Sam Aguiar Injury Lawyers Handles Distracted Driving Accident Cases
Sam Aguiar Injury Lawyers builds distracted driving cases around phone records, traffic camera footage, and witness accounts.
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Phone records and carrier data in a distracted driving case come through formal legal discovery, and traffic camera footage can be overwritten. For a free case review after a distracted driver hit you, contact Sam Aguiar Injury Lawyers at 502-888-8888.
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