Buffalo drivers know these roads. They navigate them in lake-effect snow, in construction season, in the daily snarl of the 190 and the Kensington. They know where the lights are timed, where traffic backs up near the Peace Bridge, where the merge on the 33 gets tight.
And because they know them, some of them are not really watching.
April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. It exists because familiarity with a road is not the same as attention to it. In Erie County, where traffic fatalities have remained stubbornly elevated since the pandemic and where distracted driving is the most common contributing factor in crashes statewide, the cost of a glance at a phone is not theoretical.
It shows up in crash reports. It shows up in emergency rooms. And for people already dealing with the aftermath of a crash caused by someone who was not paying attention, it shows up in every bill, every appointment, and every day they are still recovering from something that did not have to happen.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
At 55 miles per hour, taking five seconds to read a text is the equivalent of driving the full length of a football field without looking at the road. That figure comes directly from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and it applies on every road in Western New York — whether that is the Thruway at speed, Main Street in rush hour, or a neighborhood street in Cheektowaga where the posted limit is 30 and pedestrians cross mid-block.
Five seconds. A football field. Eyes off the road.
The problem is not that distracted driving always causes a crash. It is that it almost never does — until it does. Every glance that ends without incident convinces a driver the next one is acceptable. The behavior becomes automatic. And then something changes ahead, a car stops, a child steps off a curb near a school on Elmwood, and the reaction time that was sacrificed for a notification is exactly the reaction time that was needed.
Nationally, distracted driving killed 3,275 people in 2023 and injured an estimated 324,819 more, according to NHTSA. That works out to nine deaths every day of the year.
In New York State, according to data from the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research at the University at Albany, driver inattention or distraction was a contributing factor in 116 fatal crashes in 2023. That number reflects only what was formally documented — a known undercount, since drivers who caused crashes while on their phones rarely say so when law enforcement arrives.
The New York State Governor's Traffic Safety Committee identifies distracted driving as the single most common contributing factor in all crashes across New York State. Not one of several leading causes. The leading cause.
In Erie and Niagara counties, traffic fatalities have remained elevated since the pandemic. According to reporting based on NHTSA data, there were 78 fatal crashes in the two-county region in 2022, killing 88 people — with Buffalo accounting for the largest share of those crashes at 24. Preliminary data indicated fatal accidents remained high in Erie County in 2023. These are not distant statistics. They are Western New York roads, Western New York victims, and in too many cases, distracted Western New York drivers.
NHTSA identifies three categories of driver distraction:
Texting combines all three at once. Eyes on the screen, hand on the device, mind composing or processing a message. For however long that lasts, the driver is functionally absent from the road. That is why it consistently produces the most serious outcomes and why it accounts for a disproportionate share of fatal and injury crashes relative to other forms of distraction.
New York was the first state in the nation to prohibit handheld cell phone use while driving, enacting that ban in 2001. The framework has grown more comprehensive since. Key provisions under the Vehicle and Traffic Law:
Five points on a single violation is not a slap on the wrist. Combined with surcharges and the insurance consequences that follow a cell phone conviction in New York, the penalties are designed to make distracted driving expensive before it becomes deadly.
They also create a legal record. When a driver violates VTL 1225-c or 1225-d and causes a crash, that documented violation is directly relevant to any civil claim that follows. It is concrete evidence of a breach of the duty of care every driver owes to the people around them.
A traffic citation is not required for civil liability. The standard in a personal injury case is negligence — and distracted driving establishes negligence whether or not a ticket was issued at the scene.
Every driver on a New York road owes a duty of reasonable care to others. Looking at a phone, adjusting something on the dashboard, or being absorbed in a phone conversation while merging near the Walden Galleria can breach that duty. When a breach causes an injury, the injured party has the right to pursue compensation.
New York follows a pure comparative fault standard. Fault is apportioned between the parties, and a victim's recovery is reduced by their percentage of fault — but not eliminated by it. Even a victim who bears some share of responsibility for a crash can still recover compensation proportional to the other party's fault.
That framework is more favorable to injured victims than in states that bar recovery entirely when a victim shares any fault. It also means insurers have a strong incentive to push fault attribution toward the victim wherever possible, scrutinizing every aspect of the injured party's conduct to find something — anything — that shifts the percentage. Understanding how that works, and how to push back effectively, is where the value of experienced legal representation becomes concrete.
The actions taken in the minutes and hours after a crash directly determine what is possible later. There is no recovering evidence that was never collected.
A police report creates a contemporaneous record of the crash that cannot be revised after the fact. Buffalo Police and the Erie County Sheriff respond to crashes involving injury. Officers who observe indicators of distraction at the scene — a phone visible in the driver's hand, a lit screen, statements made before anyone starts calculating their exposure — may document details that become central to the case.
Photograph both vehicles from multiple angles, the surrounding road, traffic controls, skid marks, and any visible injuries. Collect the names and contact information of witnesses before they leave. Write down or record exactly what the other driver says, particularly anything that suggests they were not paying attention when the crash happened.
Some injuries — soft tissue damage, concussions, spinal trauma — do not present obvious symptoms in the immediate aftermath of a crash. Adrenaline masks pain. Waiting days to see a doctor creates a gap that insurers will use to argue injuries were not caused by the crash, were pre-existing, or were less serious than claimed. Closing that gap is simple: get evaluated that day.
This is one of the most consequential mistakes injured drivers make. Insurance adjusters are not neutral parties. Their interviews are structured to produce responses the company can use to reduce or deny a claim. You are not required to give a recorded statement, and you should not do so before speaking with a distracted driving attorney.
Cell phone records showing that a driver was actively using a device at the moment of impact can be subpoenaed — but wireless carriers do not retain that data indefinitely. A preservation letter issued early creates a legal hold on the records. Without it, the data may be gone before litigation begins.
Most modern vehicles contain event data recorders capturing speed, braking, and steering inputs in the seconds before impact. That data is permanently lost if the vehicle is repaired, resold, or scrapped before it is formally preserved. Dashcam footage, traffic camera recordings, and surveillance video from nearby businesses all operate on short overwrite cycles.
Witnesses move on. Physical evidence at the scene disappears once the road is cleared. The window for building a complete evidentiary record is open now and closes constantly. Every week that passes without an attorney involved is a week during which something that exists today may not exist next week.
Under New York's pure comparative fault rule, an injured party can recover compensation as long as the other party bears some responsibility — regardless of the victim's own percentage of fault. A victim found 25 percent at fault recovers 75 percent of their damages. A victim found 60 percent at fault recovers 40 percent.
In practice, insurance companies fight hard on the percentages. Every aspect of the victim's conduct gets examined — speed, lane position, following distance, phone records, seatbelt use. The goal is to push the victim's fault percentage as high as possible, which directly reduces the insurer's exposure.
An experienced personal injury attorney builds the affirmative case for the at-fault driver's distraction while anticipating and countering that strategy. The goal is an accurate evidentiary record of what each party actually did, presented in a way that reflects the reality of the crash rather than the narrative the insurer prefers.
Earlier than most people do — that is the consistent answer.
The typical pattern: the injured party tries the insurance process first. They get a lowball offer, or the adjuster goes quiet, or the medical bills arrive and the gap between what is being offered and what the injury actually cost becomes undeniable. By that point, weeks or months have passed, some evidence is gone, and the case is harder to build than it was.
New York's statute of limitations for personal injury claims is three years from the date of injury. Three years is not as generous as it sounds once investigation, medical record compilation, expert review, and negotiation are factored in. Cases built carefully over time are consistently stronger than cases scrambled together under deadline pressure.
A consultation with a personal injury attorney is a conversation — about what happened, what evidence exists right now, what New York law provides, and what options are available. It costs nothing and the information has value regardless of what the injured party decides to do next.
Every April, NHTSA's Distracted Driving Awareness Month runs alongside New York State's "Operation Hang Up" enforcement campaign. State and local law enforcement increase patrols specifically targeting handheld device violations. In 2024, law enforcement across New York issued more than 7,000 distracted driving tickets during the enforcement window alone.
The campaigns matter. Visible enforcement changes behavior at the margins. But no public awareness initiative reaches back to protect someone who was already hit by a driver whose attention was somewhere other than the road.
For those people, the campaign is not the point. Accountability is.
The 116 fatal crashes involving distracted driving documented in New York State's 2023 data represent real people. The 88 lives lost in Erie and Niagara counties in 2022 represent Western New York families. The injuries recorded in thousands of additional crashes that year represent people now dealing with medical bills, lost income, chronic pain, and disruption to their lives — because someone looked away.
That is the price of looking away. RK&L is here to make sure it is paid by the right person.
If you or someone you love was injured in a crash caused by a distracted driver in Buffalo or anywhere in Western New York, contact RK&L today for a free consultation. Our team knows how to build these cases, how to fight the insurance companies, and how to pursue the full compensation you deserve.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
Sources
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Distracted Driving. https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA Launches Put the Phone Away or Pay Campaign. https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-launches-put-phone-away-or-pay-campaign
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Research Note: Distracted Driving in 2023. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/813703
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Governor's Traffic Safety Committee Announces Statewide Distracted Driving Enforcement and Education Campaign. https://dmv.ny.gov/news/governors-traffic-safety-committee-announces-statewide-distracted-driving-enforcement-and-1
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Governor's Traffic Safety Committee Announces Results of Increased Efforts to Curb Distracted Driving. https://dmv.ny.gov/news/governors-traffic-safety-committee-announces-results-of-increased-efforts-to-curb-distracted
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Cell Phone Use and Texting. https://dmv.ny.gov/points-and-penalties/cell-phone-use-and-texting
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Chapter 8: Defensive Driving. https://dmv.ny.gov/new-york-state-drivers-manual-and-practice-tests/chapter-8-defensive-driving
New York Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1225-c. Operating a Motor Vehicle While Using a Mobile Telephone.
New York Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1225-d. Operating a Motor Vehicle While Using a Portable Electronic Device.
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