Distracted Driving Accident Lawyers in Summerville

From June 9, 2014, through August 31, 2025, Section 56-5-3890 barred one thing. A driver could not use a wireless device to compose, send or read a text-based message on a public street or highway. The 2014 version did not reach talking on a handheld phone, and it exempted hands-free devices and GPS directions.

A fine could not exceed $25 per violation or $50 for one incident. The violation was not a criminal offense, and it stayed off the driver's motor vehicle record. The statute also barred reporting it to the driver's insurer. An officer needed probable cause, based on a clear and unobstructed view, before stopping anyone for it.

The rewrite bans three things on any public highway. A driver may not hold or support a mobile electronic device with any part of the body. Reading, composing or sending text is also off limits, including email, app interactions and website content, and so is watching video, games or video calls.

The fine is $100 the first time. A repeat within three years costs $200 and adds 2 points under Section 56-1-720, and no part of either fine may be suspended. The stop standard dropped from probable cause to reasonable suspicion, still grounded in the officer's clear and unobstructed view. The Act calls the offense distracted driving. Watching a movie on a phone propped in a cupholder breaks the video ban even if the driver never touches the phone.

Fairchild arose from a crash on I-95 involving a truck towing a trailer. The Court found evidence that the truck driver may have broken the speed statute, Section 56-5-1520, and the following-distance statute, Section 56-5-1930. It also restated that a statutory violation is some evidence of recklessness, though not recklessness by itself. That evidence, with an inference that the violations caused the crash, let the punitive damages question reach the jury.

Punitive damages still require clear and convincing evidence of reckless, willful or wanton conduct under Section 15-32-520(D). A driver watching a video at highway speed might raise that question, but the answer turns on the proof. No lawyer can promise that a phone violation will support punitive damages.

The ban covers driving on public highways, and the section says nothing about private lots. Subsection (G) preempts local ordinances on phone use while driving, so one statewide rule applies inside and outside Summerville's town limits. The Act also directs SCDOT to post signs about the law at every interstate entry point. The Department of Public Safety receives 25% of the fines to educate the public about distracted driving.

Section 56-5-3890(C) lists seven situations where the section does not apply. They include a first responder on duty and a driver reporting a crash or hazard to public safety officials. A driver using equipment the carmaker installed is covered too. So is a driver sending or receiving data on a digital dispatch system while performing job duties. Each exemption has limits. Several apply only while the driver neither holds nor supports the phone. An insurer defending the driver may raise any of them, and each one needs testing against the facts of the crash.

Uses That Require the Phone to Stay Untouched

Several exemptions share one condition. The driver may not hold the device or support it with any part of the body. Someone steering with one hand while the other grips the phone gets no help from any of them. That holds true whatever the phone was doing at the time.

Maps, Music and Traffic Updates

Directions, listening to audio and checking traffic or road conditions are permitted when they require no typing. A phone mounted on the dash and showing a route fits that description. Entering a new address while the car moves does not, because that takes typing.

Starting or Ending a Call Without Typing

The statute lets a driver start or end a call in a way that requires no typing. Unlocking the phone for that purpose, or for directions, is covered too. A voice command or a single touch on a mounted phone can fit the exemption. Typing a number while moving does not.

Parked, Stopped or Dictating by Voice

The statute permits dictating a message that the phone converts to text, if the driver does not hold or support the phone. A driver who is lawfully parked or stopped is outside the section entirely. The statute does not define "lawfully parked or stopped." Whether it covers a car waiting at a red light on Main Street is an open question. A lawyer would not assume the answer either way.

A Call to 911 as the Reason for a Phone in Hand

Some drivers say the phone was out to report the crash or a hazard. Subsection (C)(3) does exempt a driver reporting an accident, emergency or safety hazard to a public safety official. The timing matters, though. A call placed after the impact does not explain a phone in hand before it. Records can show when any call went out.

Eyewitnesses often supply the first proof. Another driver, a passenger or a pedestrian may have seen a bent head or a raised phone. The at-fault driver's own statements to the officer or an adjuster can matter too. Jack C. Frost learned how officers take those statements, and how the words end up in a report, during fourteen years in law enforcement.

Witness Names in the Officer's Written Report

Witnesses sometimes leave before a report is complete, so names gathered at the scene help. Section 56-5-1270 covers any crash an officer investigates that involves injury, death or apparent damage of $1,000 or more. Within 24 hours after finishing, that officer sends SCDMV a written report naming the participants and witnesses interviewed. According to SCDMV, the official copy holds more than the short form handed out at the scene.

Dashcam and Storefront Video

Video can show a head tilted down or a car drifting before impact. Dashcam files from either car, and footage from shops along Main Street, may capture the seconds before the crash. Some systems overwrite old files on a loop, which is why a written request asking the business owner to keep the file can matter.

Phone Records Through the Court Process

Once a case is in court, a lawyer can seek the driver's phone records through the court process. The court's rules govern what the other side must produce. Records that show a message sent or a video playing at the moment of impact can tie the phone to the crash. A lawyer then lines up those records against the report's timeline and the witness accounts.

Section 56-5-6160 says no evidence of a conviction for a violation of Chapter 5 is admissible in any civil action. A hands-free conviction falls under Chapter 5, so the conviction itself cannot come into the injury case. Evidence of the conduct is different, and witnesses and records can still show what the driver did. How the statute treats a guilty plea or a paid ticket is a separate question a lawyer researches before relying on either.

County pages in the SCDPS 2024 Traffic Collision Fact Book tally every time a factor appears on a report, up to five per crash. On that measure, Distracted/Inattention did not make Dorchester County's five most-listed factors in 2024. The county's list ran Failed to Yield Right of Way, Driving Too Fast for Conditions, Improper Lane Usage or Change, Followed Too Closely and Ran Off Road. Charleston County listed Distracted/Inattention 2,965 times, second on its own list.

Nobody should compare those county listings with the statewide primary-factor count, or with each other as shares. A low listing in Dorchester County says what officers wrote down, not what drivers were doing. Codes can also overlap. Frost Law Group handles drunk driving crash claims when a phone and alcohol turn up in the same file.

Dorchester County logged 3,958 collisions in 2024, including 32 fatal crashes that killed 37 people. Its population death rate more than doubled in a year, reaching 21.2 per 100,000 after 8.8 in 2023. The county ranked 10th of 46 in fatal collisions, up from 21st the year before. Crashes peaked between 3 PM and 6 PM, when 972 occurred, while the most fatal ones came from 6 PM to 9 PM. Officers recorded 519 collisions on Dorchester Road, SC 642, more than on any other county road.

SCDOT estimated about 33,100 vehicles a day in 2024 on US 17A, Summerville's Main Street, on the segment that ends at the Berkeley County boundary. I-26 Exit 199 connects the interstate to North Main Street. Heavy traffic on those roads means more drivers who may have seen a phone in the other car. Those totals give a claim its local backdrop, not proof of what happened in one crash.

SCDMV sells official copies of collision reports online, at branch offices and by mail with Form FR-50. Each report costs $10. By mail, SCDMV wants the FR-50 in duplicate with payment by check or money order. In town, the Summerville Police Department points people to CrashDocs, a third-party site, for its reports. The report number from the scene makes either request simpler.

Section 56-5-3890(C)(4) exempts a driver transmitting or receiving data on a digital dispatch system while performing job duties. The statute does not name rideshare or delivery apps. Whether a given app fits that exemption is a question a lawyer researches for the facts at hand. A delivery driver tapping a screen to confirm a drop-off raises exactly that question. The vehicle's owner and its insurer are the first things a lawyer identifies in a work-driver crash.

The federal phone rules reach interstate commercial vehicles from 10,001 pounds up. Section 56-5-4240(B) leaves in-state trucks lighter than 26,001 pounds outside the federal rules. A vehicle meant for 16 or more occupants, driver included, stays covered at any weight, and so does one hauling placarded hazardous materials. A local box truck under that line still falls under Section 56-5-3890 like any other vehicle, so the hands-free rule covers its driver.

Uber and Lyft drivers work through an app, and the app's status at the moment of impact decides which coverage applies. Section 58-23-1625(D) gives a way to test that status. When coverage is under investigation, the rideshare company and the insurers must trade the precise times the driver signed on and off. The window runs half a day on each side of the crash.

A rideshare driver's own auto insurer may exclude coverage while the driver is logged in, so the coverage the statute requires may matter most. Frost Law Group handles rideshare accident claims in which the app itself may have drawn the driver's eyes.

The hands-free rule applies to every driver, whatever the age. A beginner's permit is available at 15. Under Section 56-1-50, a permit holder generally needs a licensed driver 21 or older, with a year of experience, in the car.

For a teen driver, another statute can matter to the claim. Section 56-1-110 treats a minor's careless driving as the fault of the person who signed the minor's permit or license application. That signer shares joint and several liability with the teen, meaning the injured person may collect the full amount from either one. That shared liability does not apply when liability insurance in the required form and amounts covers the teen.

Section 56-1-100 says who may sign, starting with a parent or guardian, and the signing happens in front of an SCDMV employee. Section 56-1-120 lets the signer ask SCDMV to cancel the minor's permit or license, which ends that liability for later driving. A lawyer checks who signed and what policy covered the teen before naming anyone. How those rules apply depends on the paperwork and the facts, so no one should assume the result.