There is no question that distracted driving is extremely dangerous and puts the distracted driver as well as everyone else in their path at risk. We have shared many stories about an innocent person who was injured or killed when another driver failed to commit their full attention to the cars and road around them.

Texting while driving is the most obvious example of distracted driving. Although laws have been passed and public service announcements warn of the danger, many people simply ignore the risks and assume that they can text while driving without consequence. While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says distracted driving is reported in about 20 percent of accident because it may be difficult to demonstrate that the other driver was distracted the actual number may be much higher. In an ongoing California case, whether or not the driver was texting is one of the central issues.

In this case, the California Highway Patrol says that one driver was texting on her phone, which is illegal in California, when she crashed into the back of another car that was stopped in traffic. The driver of the other car was killed in the crash. The suspect in the case denies that she was texting however and that her phone was sitting in her cup holder at the time of the crash.

The woman in this case claims that she can produce phone records demonstrating that she was not texting at the time of the accident. While the court will have to figure out exactly what happened in this accident, demonstrating that a driver was using a handheld device can be tricky. Even if the phone records do not show a text message sent just before a collision, today's smart-phones offer a variety of other distractions that may or may not show up on a phone record.

Source: Channel 10 News, "Local Driver Says She Wasn't Distracted During Fatal Crash," Jan. 29, 2012