Can texting a friend who's driving get you in trouble?

“Texting a Driver Could Make You Liable for a Crash.” Think about that headline from this article for a minute. It’s a pretty big departure from what we normally think. In New Jersey a court ruled a little over a week ago that if you text somebody who is driving and gets into a car crash, you can be held liable for the destruction and aftermath of the crash causes – not just the driver.

We have no idea if this opinion will end up surviving the many court challenges that would come if this were to ever successfully be used against somebody texting a driver, we do know one thing though: texting while driving is dangerous, illegal in a lot of cases, and just plain dumb. And while we typically believe it is ultimately the driver’s responsibility to pay attention to the road and make sure that they minimize their distractions, we all have the responsibility to make sure that we don’t distract anybody who is driving, whether that’s while we are in the car with them or on the couch texting them from afar.

What do you think? Should those who text a driver that then gets into a crash be held liable too or should it be just the driver who is held responsible for his or her actions? Whatever you think, we can all agree that we need to pay attention to the road 100% of the time. No text is worth the risks.