The United States Department of Transportation held a Distracted Driving Summit last month and discovered that distracted driving is a problem.  I do not know if we really needed to conduct a two-day meeting to discover that distracted driving is a problem but some of the presentations on the website are revealing about how much a problem distracted driving is a problem.

Some of the more interesting presentations were the Legislation, Regulation and Enforcement presentation that hears from a number of interested legislators and the problems that they face in introducing law that would restrict the use of cell phones in vehicles.  Some of the speakers say that the opposition they face ranges from apathy to outright hostility against more law in general.  One of the biggest problems of course is enforcement.  The actual observation of a driver on the road and how an officer enforces the law.  You can pass all of the laws you want but if you cannot enforce the law you may as well forget it.

Another great presentation was the Youth Program that has Reggie Shaw, a now 22-year-old, then 19-year-old man that confesses to killing two men in northern Utah while texting.  Mr. Shaw's talk was poignant and heartfelt and can be seen at www.zerofatalities.com.  The most sobering part of his talk is that it could have happened to any one of us that choose to be distracted while driving.

As a motorcycle lawyer in Utah I deal with distracted driving all the time.  Victims of motorcycle crashes are often the victim of people who choose to drive while distracted.  That being a fact and proving it are often two different things.  Different cell phone carriers have different policies for the retention of cell phone records.  Cricket for example does not track the number called but does track the time and duration of the call.  Different carriers keep records for different periods of time.  Some keep the records for 3 months and then purge their system and others keep the records for a year.  What is important to note here is that if you suspect a driver that crashed into you was using their cell phone you need to get the records to prove it.  It is part of our routine investigation to immediately request the cell phone records of drivers that crash into our clients.

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