Punitive damages may be available in a distracted driver action where the plaintiff has evidence that the defendant driver was actually using a GPS device at the time of the accident.

A trial court in Lackawanna County recently found that punitive damages are not available to a plaintiff in an automobile crash when the defendant may have been distracted by his GPS while driving, absent evidence that the driver was actually using the device at the moment of impact. The court held that summary judgment was appropriate on the issue of punitive damages when a negligent driver was distracted while looking at a GPS device rather than the roadway and, consequently, failed to pay attention to the road, resulting in the accident. Although punitive damages are typically unavailable unless a defendant does, or fails to do something so egregious that the court system deems it necessary to punish said party in order to deter others from similar behavior, such as in a drunk driving context, in Rockwell, the court held that looking away from the road at a GPS program on a smart phone to the point of distraction may be reckless conduct to support a punitive damages claim. Thus, the court left open the possibility that punitive damages may be obtained in claims arising from distracted driving as the result of a GPS or mobile device. However, the evidence in this particular case was lacking any proof that the defendant was actually viewing the GPS as he made a turn and caused the crash.

Case Law Alert, 4th Quarter 2013