How can distracted driving be proven after a truck accident? Federal regulations prohibit covered commercial drivers from texting and from using a hand-held mobile telephone while operating a commercial motor vehicle. After a Florida truck crash, phone records, device data, dispatch communications, onboard video, vehicle data, and witness testimony may help determine whether distraction contributed to the collision.
Reviewed for legal accuracy by Ryan C. Hasanbasic, Florida Bar No. 44119 | Updated August 20, 2026
Fowkes & Hasanbasic represents people injured in tractor-trailer, delivery-truck, bus, and other commercial-vehicle crashes throughout Tampa Bay and Florida. Our attorneys personally evaluate and handle each case. We investigate the driver’s conduct as well as the motor carrier’s policies, supervision, dispatch practices, and preservation of evidence.
Return to our Florida Truck Accident hub or review the firm’s broader Florida Personal Injury practice.
Contents
Why Distracted Truck Driving Is Especially Dangerous
A commercial truck requires more time and distance to slow or stop than a passenger vehicle. When a driver looks away from the road, removes a hand from the wheel, or focuses on a message or device, the truck may travel a substantial distance before the driver recognizes a hazard and reacts.
Distraction can contribute to lane departures, rear-end impacts, missed traffic signals, unsafe turns, delayed braking, sideswipes, rollovers, and multi-vehicle collisions. The source of distraction may be a cellphone, dispatch terminal, navigation system, electronic logging device, food, paperwork, passenger, object inside the cab, or activity outside the vehicle.
Federal Texting Restrictions for Commercial Drivers
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations prohibit covered commercial drivers from texting while driving. “Texting” includes manually entering or reading text on an electronic device. Depending on the conduct, that can include:
- Writing, sending, or reading text messages
- Emailing or instant messaging
- Entering commands or requests to access a webpage
- Using a dispatching device to enter or retrieve text
- Other manual electronic-text entry or retrieval for communication
The restriction applies while operating a covered commercial motor vehicle, including periods when the vehicle is temporarily stationary because of traffic, a traffic-control device, or another momentary delay. The regulation contains limited exceptions, such as contacting law enforcement or emergency services when necessary.
Federal Hand-Held Mobile Phone Restrictions
Covered commercial drivers are also restricted from using hand-held mobile telephones while driving. Prohibited conduct generally includes:
- Holding a mobile phone to conduct a voice communication
- Dialing by pressing more than a single button
- Reaching for a phone in a manner that requires leaving the seated, properly restrained driving position
A compliant hands-free device must be positioned so the driver can operate it while properly restrained, generally through voice activation, speakerphone, an earpiece, or a single-button function. Hands-free technology can still become relevant to a negligence investigation if its use distracted the driver under the circumstances.
Florida Law and Company Safety Policies
Federal commercial-driver regulations may apply alongside Florida traffic and negligence law. A motor carrier may also maintain internal policies that are stricter than the minimum legal requirements, such as prohibiting all calls while the truck is moving or locking dispatch functions during operation.
Company policies, training materials, safety manuals, disciplinary records, and prior violation notices may show what the carrier expected and what it knew about the driver’s conduct. The fact that a company had a written policy does not establish that it trained drivers, monitored compliance, or enforced the policy.
Evidence in a Distracted Truck Driving Case
One item rarely tells the entire story. A distracted-driving investigation may compare several sources of evidence, including:
- Cellphone billing and connection records
- Device downloads or forensic information when legally obtainable
- Text, application, email, and messaging records
- Dispatch-terminal and fleet-management communications
- Electronic logging-device activity
- Dash-camera and inward-facing camera footage
- Engine-control-module or event-data-recorder information
- GPS and telematics data
- Emergency-call records and crash-report information
- Witness statements and admissions by the driver
- Surveillance or traffic-camera video
- Post-crash photographs showing device location or screen condition
Timing matters. A record showing activity near the crash must be matched with the collision timeline, time zone, vehicle movement, witness accounts, and other evidence. Likewise, the absence of a conventional text message does not rule out distraction from an application, dispatch device, navigation system, or hands-free conversation.
Preserving Phone, Video, and Dispatch Evidence
Relevant electronic data may be overwritten, deleted, or retained for only a limited period. A prompt preservation demand can identify the driver, carrier, device, account, dispatch system, cameras, vehicle systems, and records that should not be altered or destroyed.
Formal legal process may later be required to obtain records from a motor carrier, driver, cellphone provider, application provider, or other third party. The scope of available information depends on the type of record, retention practices, applicable law, and procedural posture of the case.
When the Motor Carrier May Be Responsible
The driver’s conduct is only one part of the investigation. Depending on the facts and governing law, the motor carrier’s responsibility may involve:
- Conduct legally attributable to the driver
- Requiring or permitting prohibited device use
- Sending messages while knowing the driver was operating
- Failing to train drivers on cellphone and dispatch-device rules
- Ignoring prior violations or complaints
- Failing to enforce its own distracted-driving policy
- Negligent hiring, supervision, retention, or entrustment theories supported by the evidence
Responsibility is fact-specific. Employment status, federal operating authority, leases, dispatch control, company policies, and the relationship among the driver, carrier, vehicle owner, broker, and other businesses may require careful review.
How Distraction May Appear in Vehicle and Crash Evidence
Vehicle data may show late or absent braking, sudden steering, speed, throttle position, or other operational information near the collision. Physical evidence may show that the truck drifted from its lane, failed to react to stopped traffic, entered an intersection against a signal, or made an abrupt correction.
Those facts do not independently prove cellphone use. They can, however, help establish a timeline and may corroborate phone, dispatch, video, or witness evidence.
Injuries and Recoverable Damages
Distracted truck crashes can cause traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, fractures, internal injuries, burns, amputations, permanent disability, psychological harm, and death. Depending on the evidence and applicable law, a claim may include medical expenses, lost income, diminished earning capacity, pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, property damage, and other recoverable losses.
A fatal collision may support a wrongful-death claim by the appropriate estate and survivors. The parties, coverage, and damages must be evaluated under the facts of the individual case.
Distracted Truck Driving Questions
Is texting illegal for commercial truck drivers?
Federal regulations prohibit covered commercial drivers from manually entering or reading electronic text while operating a commercial motor vehicle. State law may impose additional restrictions.
Can a truck driver use a hands-free phone?
Federal rules permit certain hands-free operation when the phone is located close enough to be used while the driver remains properly seated and restrained and the communication can be initiated, answered, or terminated through compliant voice or single-button functions.
Can phone records prove the driver was texting?
Phone records may help establish timing and activity, but they often must be compared with device information, application data, dispatch records, vehicle data, witness testimony, and the crash timeline. Traditional carrier records may not reveal every application or device activity.
Can the trucking company be responsible for a distracted driver?
Potentially. Responsibility may arise from the parties’ legal relationship, the driver’s work activities, the carrier’s own policies or conduct, supervision, training, dispatch practices, or other facts. It is not determined by one fact alone.
What should be preserved after a suspected distracted-driving crash?
Potential evidence may include the driver’s devices and accounts, dispatch records, onboard video, ELD and telematics information, vehicle data, company policies, training and disciplinary records, photographs, surveillance video, and witness information.
Request a Free Distracted Truck Accident Case Review
Fowkes & Hasanbasic represents people injured in distracted commercial-driver crashes throughout Tampa Bay and Florida. We offer a free case review and generally handle personal injury matters on a contingency-fee basis under a written representation agreement.
Contact the firm, return to the Truck Accident hub, or review the main Personal Injury hub.