Distracted Truck Drivers: When Cell Phone Use Causes a Georgia Crash

Federal rules bar commercial truck drivers from using a hand-held phone while driving, with an exception for communicating with law enforcement officials or other emergency services, and from texting while driving. Georgia has its own hands-free rules, and phone records and vehicle data can show what happened before and during a crash. If you are looking into truck driver cell phone use in a Georgia crash lawsuit, this page explains each rule in plain words. It is general information, not advice about your own case.

Why Phone Use by a Truck Driver Matters in a Georgia Crash

A truck driver’s phone use matters when it may have played a part in the crash, because both federal and Georgia rules limit it. Phone use is only one question, though.

A crash with a commercial truck can be confusing. Families often hear about it first from a police report, a tow yard, or an insurance call. Questions about the driver’s phone can come up early, sometimes before anyone has the full picture.

Phone use sits alongside other questions. Speed, following distance, fatigue, and the condition of the truck can all bear on how a crash is examined. Looking at only one of them can miss the rest.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration publishes national statistics on fatal, injury, and property-damage-only crashes involving large trucks and buses. You can read the agency’s FMCSA crash statistics for that national picture.

This page covers the federal texting rule, the federal hand-held phone rule, Georgia’s hands-free rules, how phone and vehicle data are gathered, how fault works, and how long you generally have to file. T. Madden & Associates, P.C. has practiced in Georgia since 1999 and handles truck accident claims.

What the Federal Texting Rule Prohibits for Commercial Drivers

Federal rules say no commercial truck driver may engage in texting while driving, except when necessary to communicate with law enforcement officials or other emergency services. Under 49 CFR 392.80, no driver shall engage in texting while driving.

The regulation says it plainly: “No driver shall engage in texting while driving.” It also bars motor carriers, meaning the trucking companies, from allowing or requiring drivers to text while driving.

The rule defines driving in a specific way. It does not count as driving when the driver has moved the vehicle to the side of, or off, a highway and halted where it can safely remain stationary. Driving does include short stops with the motor running for traffic, a traffic control device, or other momentary delays.

A truck safely moved off the highway and halted where it can stay put falls outside that definition. So a truck waiting at a red light is still covered by the rule.

There is one narrow exception. Texting is allowed when it is necessary to communicate with law enforcement officials or other emergency services.

Whether the rule applies to a particular trip depends on the facts of that trip. The details of the route, the load, and the driver’s status all matter when a claim is reviewed.

What the Federal Hand-Held Phone Rule Prohibits

Federal rules say no driver may use a hand-held mobile telephone while driving a commercial motor vehicle, except when necessary to communicate with law enforcement officials or other emergency services. Under 49 CFR 392.82, no driver shall use a hand-held mobile telephone while driving a commercial motor vehicle.

This is a separate rule from the texting rule. The hand-held rule is about holding and using a phone. A driver could break one rule without breaking the other, so claims often look at both.

The hand-held rule defines driving in a similar way. It covers operating a commercial motor vehicle on a highway, including brief stops for traffic or other momentary delays. It leaves out a truck the driver has moved off the highway and halted where it can safely remain.

Like the texting rule, the hand-held rule has an emergency exception. Using a hand-held mobile telephone is permitted when necessary to communicate with law enforcement officials or other emergency services.

Trucking companies have duties too. Under 49 CFR 390.11, whenever part 325 of subchapter A or this subchapter prescribes a duty or prohibition on a driver, the motor carrier must require the driver to observe it.

In practice, these rules give a claim a standard to measure the driver’s conduct against. Showing that a rule was broken is only the first step. The next step is connecting that break to what happened on the road.

Georgia’s Hands-Free Law and How It Works Alongside Federal Rules

Georgia has its own hands-free rules, and state and federal rules can both apply to the same trip. The Georgia Department of Driver Services publishes the state’s traffic and safe-driving rules, including its distracted-driving and hands-free device rules. You can find them in the Georgia DDS traffic rules chapter.

The Department also publishes federal trucker rules on phone use. Those cover commercial drivers holding or dialing a mobile telephone and sending or reading text messages while driving. See the Georgia DDS federal trucker rules page for that material.

The federal rules are written for commercial trucks. A claim may point to either set of rules, depending on what it is trying to show.

Other distractions work differently. A claim may look at those under the general standard of care.

Georgia’s general standard is ordinary diligence. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-1-2, ordinary diligence is the care ordinarily prudent persons use under the same or similar circumstances. The absence of that care is called ordinary negligence.

How Phone Records and Timing Are Used as Evidence

Phone records are mainly used to check timing. The time a call or message happened is compared with the time of the crash.

Call and text logs carry time stamps. Those times are set against the moment of the crash. A message sent seconds before a crash tells a different story than one sent an hour earlier.

Timing matters more than the bare fact that a phone was in the cab. A phone that sat in a pocket with no activity during the crash window tells a different story than one with live activity at that moment.

Records are usually requested in a lawsuit through discovery, the formal process for exchanging evidence. They can also be requested by subpoena to the phone carrier. The request has to connect to the facts of the case.

Records can show activity before, during, or after a crash. Each window needs context. A log also has limits. It shows that a call or message happened, but it does not show what the driver was looking at.

Apps, Telematics, and In-Cab Technology as Sources of Evidence

Electronic logs, GPS data, dash camera footage, and dispatch or messaging app records can all help show what happened in a truck before a crash.

Electronic logging devices, called ELDs, track a truck’s hours of service. Federal rules require drivers to review their ELD records, correct inaccurate entries, and certify that the information is accurate, as stated in 49 CFR 395.30.

The same rule bars a motor carrier from altering or erasing the original hours-of-service information. It also bars changes to the source data streams and to information in an ELD that uses that original data.

Telematics and dash cameras add other data. Some systems record position and speed only. Others may record more. The answer varies by system, so each device has to be checked on its own.

Not every system keeps data for the same length of time. That is one reason early action on evidence matters. Waiting can make some sources harder to get.

Connecting Phone Use to the Crash and to Georgia Fault Rules

Showing that a driver broke a phone rule is not the same as showing the break caused the crash. A claim needs both parts.

The first part is the rule violation. The second part is causation, meaning the phone use played a role in how the crash happened. Each part needs evidence tied to the facts of the crash.

Georgia’s fault rules come next. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33, a plaintiff’s damages are reduced in proportion to the plaintiff’s own percentage of fault.

Under that same section, a plaintiff who is 50 percent or more responsible for the injury or damages receives no damages (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33; Quynn v. Hulsey (2020)). This is the 50 percent bar.

The statute also says each liable person’s share is that person’s own. Shares are not joint.

Punitive damages are a separate matter. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1, they may be awarded only in tort actions when clear and convincing evidence shows willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression, or that entire want of care which would raise the presumption of conscious indifference to consequences. They are meant to punish, penalize, or deter, not to compensate.

Phone use is one kind of evidence a claim may address. The punitive damages standard is a high one.

How Long You Have to File a Claim in Georgia

Georgia generally allows two years to file a claim for injuries to a person. The time limit comes from O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33.

The statute says these actions must be brought within two years after the right of action accrues. Actions for injuries to the person that involve loss of consortium have four years under the same section.

The clock usually starts when the right of action accrues. Writing down key dates early can help you keep track of them.

Other deadlines can differ. Some claims, such as those involving government entities, can follow different timing. The specific facts of the claim decide which timing applies.

Evidence has its own timing too. Phone records and ELD data may not be kept forever. Waiting can make some sources harder to get, so timing matters for proof as well as for filing.

T. Madden & Associates, P.C. has offices in Jonesboro, in Clayton County, and in Atlanta, Decatur, Macon, and Augusta.

Talk With T. Madden & Associates About Your Truck Crash

A truck crash brings rules, records, and deadlines that are hard to sort out on your own.

You may be gathering these facts for a family member after a crash you never expected. The phone question can feel like one more thing to track down, on top of medical care, time off work, and paperwork.

Common questions

This page is general information, not legal advice. Terance Madden is the responsible lawyer for this page at T. Madden & Associates, P.C., which has offices in Jonesboro (Clayton County), Atlanta, Decatur, Macon, and Augusta.