Ask a driver who just rear-ended you whether they were looking at their phone. Nobody says yes.
That single fact shapes every distracted driving claim we handle. Our West Palm Beach distracted driving accident lawyers work these cases backward, from the physical evidence and the phone records, because the admission is never coming. Rosenthal, Levy, Simon & Sosa Injury Lawyers has been in practice in Palm Beach County since 1985, and we take these calls 24 hours a day at +1 (866) 640-7117.
Table of contents
- Florida Splits Distracted Driving Into Two Different Laws
- Why Do West Palm Beach Work Zones Change These Cases?
- How Do You Prove a Driver Was Distracted?
- The Injury Pattern When Nobody Braked
- How the Two Florida Statutes Compare
- Where Do These Crashes Concentrate in Palm Beach County?
- What Does Florida's Comparative Fault Rule Mean for You?
- What a Distracted Driving Claim Accounts For
- How Long Do You Have to Act?
- Why Work With Our Firm on a Distracted Driving Case
- Distracted Driving Accident Questions People Ask Us
- One Second of Somebody Else's Attention
Florida Splits Distracted Driving Into Two Different Laws
Distracted driving in Florida is more than texting. Two separate statutes cover different conduct in different places, and a great deal of dangerous behavior falls outside both of them while still counting as negligence. Understanding Florida's distracted driving laws can help clarify which behaviors are prohibited and which may still support a negligence claim.
Section 316.305 prohibits typing or reading data on a wireless device for nonvoice communication while driving. Texting, emailing and instant messaging are named in the statute itself. Since July 2019 this is enforced as a primary offense, meaning an officer can pull a driver over for that alone. FLHSMV explained the change here.
Section 316.306 goes further in specific places. In a school zone, school crossing or active work zone, a driver may not hold a wireless device at all. Not to talk, not to navigate, not to change a song. Citations there carry three points.
Then there is everything the statutes do not name. Eating, reaching into the back seat, arguing with a passenger, adjusting a touchscreen, reading a delivery app. None of that is a traffic offense in Florida. All of it is negligence if it causes a crash.
That gap matters. A driver can be entirely uncited and entirely at fault.
Why Do West Palm Beach Work Zones Change These Cases?
Because the hands-free rule applies there, and Palm Beach County is full of them right now. Palm Beach County publishes a rolling road and bridge construction list, and the western communities in particular have lived with lane closures and utility work on Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and Okeechobee Boulevard.
A crash inside a marked work zone puts a specific statutory duty in play. The driver was not permitted to be holding the device at all, which is a cleaner violation to prove than the texting statute and a stronger fact for a jury.
If your crash happened near a school at drop-off or inside coned-off construction, tell us. The location changes the legal standard, not just the story.
Free consultation, day or night. +1 (866) 640-7117.
How Do You Prove a Driver Was Distracted?
You stop trying to prove the phone and start proving the driving.
A distracted driver leaves a recognizable pattern at the scene. No skid marks before impact, because they never braked. Full-speed contact with a stopped vehicle. Drift across a lane line with no evasive steering. An impact angle that makes sense only if the driver never looked up.
Those physical facts come from the vehicle's event data recorder, which logs speed, throttle and braking in the seconds before a crash, and from the scene itself. They are available in the first weeks and gone once the car is repaired or sold for salvage.
Then there is the record trail:
Cell phone records showing data and message activity against the timestamp of the 911 call. These generally require litigation and a subpoena, not a polite request.
Employer telematics if the at-fault driver was working. Commercial fleets, delivery services and rideshare platforms often log hard braking, speed and route data.
Witness accounts from people who watched the car weave for a quarter mile before it hit you, which is a different and more persuasive fact than the crash itself.
Statements the driver made at the scene before an insurer coached them. Officers write these down. Passengers remember them.
We build the file so that the phone records confirm what the physical evidence already shows, rather than resting the whole case on a subpoena that may or may not land. This approach can be particularly important when investigating crashes involving distracted drivers addicted to their phones, as phone records may help corroborate evidence of distraction.
The Injury Pattern When Nobody Braked
Distraction crashes tend to be high-energy collisions, because the at-fault driver never slowed. That changes the injury profile compared with an ordinary fender bender at the same posted speed.
| Crash pattern | Typical mechanism | Injuries we commonly see |
|---|---|---|
| No-brake rear impact | Full-speed contact with stopped traffic | Cervical spine injury, disc herniation, whiplash |
| Lane drift into oncoming traffic | No corrective steering before impact | Chest and abdominal trauma, facial injuries |
| Failure to stop at a light or sign | Driver never registered the control device | Side-impact injuries, pelvic and shoulder fractures |
| Work zone or school zone impact | Reduced speeds, unprotected people on foot | Pedestrian and worker injuries, lower extremity fractures |
The pattern is worth documenting early. An adjuster looking at a low-speed-limit road will argue the crash was minor. A vehicle that struck at 45 miles per hour with no braking tells a different story, and the black box says so in a way that arguing does not.
How the Two Florida Statutes Compare
The two laws overlap and are not interchangeable, and the difference matters when an officer decides what to cite.
| Fla. Stat. 316.305 | Fla. Stat. 316.306 | |
|---|---|---|
| What it prohibits | Typing or reading data for nonvoice communication while driving | Holding a wireless device at all |
| Where it applies | Everywhere in Florida | School crossings, school zones and active work zones |
| First violation | Nonmoving violation, no points | Moving violation, three points |
| Second violation | Moving violation if within five years | Moving violation, three points |
| Enforcement | Primary offense since July 2019 | Citations issued since January 2020 |
Neither statute covers eating, grooming, reaching for something, or arguing with a passenger. A driver doing any of those is uncitable and still negligent, which is the gap that civil claims exist to close.
Where Do These Crashes Concentrate in Palm Beach County?
At the intersections that already carry the most traffic, because that is where a moment of inattention meets stopped cars.
North Military Trail and Okeechobee Boulevard recorded 119 crashes in 2024, the highest count at any intersection in Palm Beach County. South Military Trail and Forest Hill Boulevard recorded 101. Across the county's 200 busiest intersections, crashes rose roughly 36% over the five years ending in 2024, to more than 25 a day.
Volume alone does not prove distraction. What it does establish is that these corridors give a driver no margin. A car that drifts for two seconds on an open stretch of Southern Boulevard may recover. The same two seconds approaching a queue at Okeechobee does not. This distinction can matter when establishing the role of distracted driving in a car crash case, particularly when a driver's brief lapse leads to a collision.
What Does Florida's Comparative Fault Rule Mean for You?
If you are more than 50% responsible, you recover nothing. At 50% or less, your recovery is reduced by your share.
Section 768.81(6) sets that bar, and it is the reason insurers work so hard to find something you did wrong. In distracted driving claims the argument is usually one of these: you stopped short, you changed lanes without enough room, you were on your own phone. These arguments often involve comparative negligence in personal injury cases, where the parties' share of fault can affect the compensation available.
That last one comes up constantly. Expect the other side to look at your phone activity too. It is one more reason to talk to a West Palm Beach personal injury lawyer before you give anyone a recorded statement.
What a Distracted Driving Claim Accounts For
A claim starts with your own coverage and then moves to the at-fault driver's. Your Personal Injury Protection pays the first medical bills no matter who was distracted, and Florida requires at least $10,000 of it. Under Section 627.736, you must get initial care within 14 days or lose the benefit, and the full $10,000 applies only where a qualified provider finds an emergency medical condition. Otherwise reimbursement stops at $2,500.
Beyond PIP, a claim against the at-fault driver typically accounts for:
- Medical treatment already received and reasonably anticipated
- Wages lost during recovery, and reduced earning capacity where the injury is lasting
- Pain, limitation and the ways daily life changed
- Property damage and out-of-pocket costs
Reaching pain and suffering damages requires meeting Florida's injury threshold under Section 627.737(2). Permanent injury, significant permanent scarring, significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, or death.
How Long Do You Have to Act?
Two years to file suit on most Florida negligence claims under Section 95.11(5)(a). The evidence deadline is far shorter than that.
Phone carriers cycle detailed records. Vehicles get repaired. Cameras overwrite. The realistic window for locking down proof of distraction is weeks, and it starts the day of the crash.
Suits are filed in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, main courthouse on North Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach.
Call +1 (866) 640-7117 to start the preservation process.
Why Work With Our Firm on a Distracted Driving Case
Because we treat "prove the phone" as one route among several, not the whole plan.
Rosenthal, Levy, Simon & Sosa Injury Lawyers has been in practice in Palm Beach County since 1985, from offices in West Palm Beach and Port St. Lucie. Our attorneys and staff handle these cases in English and Spanish, consultations are free, and someone answers around the clock.
On a distraction case specifically, we:
- Send spoliation letters to preserve vehicle data and third-party video within days
- Pursue phone and telematics records through formal discovery rather than hoping an adjuster cooperates
- Identify whether the driver was working at the time, which changes both liability and available coverage
- Handle insurer contact so an early recorded statement does not become the comparative fault argument later
You pay nothing unless we recover.
Distracted Driving Accident Questions People Ask Us
Can I sue if the other driver was not ticketed for texting?
Yes. A citation makes a case easier to prove and is not a requirement for one. Most distracted driving is never cited because the officer arrived after the fact and the driver denied it. Civil liability turns on whether the driver failed to use reasonable care, which physical evidence and records can establish without a ticket.
Will the other driver's phone records be enough on their own?
Rarely by themselves. Records show activity windows, not always who was holding the device or whether it was hands-free. They become persuasive when paired with black box data showing no braking, or a witness describing a car drifting for blocks. Records support the story. They seldom carry it alone.
Can the other driver's insurer see my phone records too?
In litigation, yes, both sides can seek that discovery. It is one reason to have counsel before you volunteer anything about your own device. It is also why we build the case on physical evidence first, so the claim does not stand or fall on a records fight that cuts both ways.
Should I let my own insurance company take a recorded statement?
Talk to a lawyer first, even for your own carrier. Cooperation clauses exist, but the timing and scope are negotiable, and an unprepared statement given while you are medicated or undiagnosed can be used against you. There is no rush that outweighs getting it right.
The crash report says nothing about a phone. Does that matter?
Not much. Officers record what a driver admits and what a witness volunteers, and drivers rarely admit distraction. A blank line on the report is the normal starting condition for these claims, not a finding that nothing happened. What matters is what the vehicle data and the driving pattern show.
One Second of Somebody Else's Attention
The driver who hit you probably does not think of themselves as reckless. They looked down for a moment on Okeechobee Boulevard and you are the one in physical therapy.
Florida law does not require them to admit it. It requires proof, and proof is something that can be gathered, but only while it still exists.
If a distracted driver injured you anywhere in Palm Beach County, call us. The consultation is free, we are available 24 hours a day, and we work in English and Spanish.
Rosenthal, Levy, Simon & Sosa Injury Lawyers. Fighting For The Injured Since 1985. +1 (866) 640-7117