Cell phones are magnets that attract our attention, but of course you can face significant legal risks if you give them that attention. Just ask the “safety driver” of a self-driving Uber vehicle that struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona in 2018. Authorities say the driver was watching The voice on Hulu just before the crash – and was subsequently charged with negligent homicide.
These types of cases are always tragic because they seem so easy to avoid, but they also happen with enough regularity that it's easy to discount them. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,308 people were killed by distracted drivers in 2022 alone — and “texting is the most alarming distraction.”
That's why states continue to crack down on cell phone use while driving. For example, a Colorado law that went into effect Jan. 1 prohibits a driver from using any mobile electronic device unless it is hands-free. Thirty American states have now introduced such a ban.
But a trial that wrapped up this week in New Jersey caught my attention because it's one of the sadder and weirder examples of cell phone-induced distraction in a car. A young girl died and a 28-year-old woman is likely going to jail, but this isn't the typical story of texting while driving. There was texting – 34 times in fact – but driving had nothing to do with what happened.
Endangering children
The lawsuit centered on an incident in Franklin Township, New Jersey, on July 17, 2023, when a 6-year-old girl named Fajr Williams boarded a bus to attend a summer program. Williams had a disability and was confined to her wheelchair. The bus had a place to anchor wheelchairs to the ground, and there was a ride-along bus monitor named Amanda Davila, 28, who was tasked with watching and helping children like Williams.
According to prosecutors, Williams was securely strapped into her wheelchair and was taken to the bus by her older sister. Williams was then loaded onto the bus, but her seat was reportedly not properly secured to the floor nor were proper seat belts used. As a result, as the bus rode to school that morning, Williams began sliding off the seat of her wheelchair. (She did not have normal control of her torso movements, so she could no longer sit upright.) At one point during the ride, she slipped so low that her seat's four-point harness, which was intended to keep her upright, broke. started moving. to suffocate her. By the time the bus arrived at school, William had been strangled.
