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Orange County Motorist to Face Trial in Texting-While-Driving Pedestrian Accident

An Orange County judge has ruled that a motorist from Costa Mesa will stand trial for his involvement in a pedestrian accident last year.

Martin Burt Kuehl faces charges of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. He has been accused of text messaging while driving, which contributed to the accident.  His attorneys argued that there was no evidence to show that Kuehl was text messaging at the time of the crash. However, prosecutors held that his use of a cell phone indicated that he was driving negligently, which caused him not to see Marta Ovalle. Ovalle was an immigrant from Guatemala, and was working in Newport Beach as a nanny. On August 29^th 2008, she was crossing the street in a marked crosswalk, when she was struck by Kuehl’s car.

The Deputy District Attorney says that while he has no proof that Kuehl was texting when he stuck Ovalle, there are definitely “inferences” that Kuehl was not paying attention to the road when he stuck the nanny.  At least one witness told police that just before the accident, a motorist behind Kuehl at the intersection was forced to honk to get him to see that the light had turned green. According to the Deputy District Attorney, Kuehl’s phone was found lying next to the driver’s seat. He had been found to be inattentive much before he struck Ovalle. As the witness testified, he had probably been distracted while stopped at the intersection, unaware that the light had turned green. Phone records also show that Kuehl engaged in text messaging for approximately 30 minutes before the accident.

Kuehl has claimed that he failed to see Ovalle because the sun was shining into his eyes.  His attorneys hoped to have the felony vehicular manslaughter charge reduced to a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. A judge in Orange County on Monday rejected Kuehl’s attorney’s request to reduce the charges, and held that Kuehl will stand trial for Ovalle’s death.

This case coincides with the much talked about Distracted Driving Summit which is due to begin today in Washington DC. The summit will include safety experts, transportation officials, and members of Congress. The point of the summit is to have a comprehensive discussion on the accident risks caused by drivers distracted at the wheel. Distractions from text messaging and other cell phone use are also going to feature prominently on the agenda. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who has convened the summit, believes that at the conclusion of the summit, we will have concrete proposals to effectively deal with the texting-while-driving menace. The summit is expected to be spread over two days, ending tomorrow, the 1^st of October.

Many California personal injury lawyers  would love to see firm, effective measures being taking to prevent drivers from texting while driving, and hope that stronger measures come out of the Washington summit. California has a ban on texting while driving, as well as handheld cell phone use by motorists, but we could do much more in term of heavier fines, stronger enforcement and stricter punishments for violators. As it stands now, our enforcement is too weak and  fines too low, to really bring about the quantum shift in driving behavior, that we wish to see.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of pedestrian accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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