Colorado made this simple. SB 24-065, the hands-free driving law, means drivers can’t look at or operate a phone while behind the wheel. If a driver was scrolling, texting, or even gripping their phone during a pedestrian accident in Greenwood Village, they broke the law. That’s not just bad behavior. It’s negligence.
Negligence means someone failed to act with reasonable care. A driver looking at their phone instead of the road isn’t being reasonable, they’re being reckless with other people’s lives. When that choice leads to a pedestrian getting hit, the phone use becomes a central piece of the claim.
Why Phone Use Is So Powerful in a Pedestrian Accident Claim
We’ve seen this play out hundreds of times. A driver hits someone and says they “didn’t see” the pedestrian. But phone records show they were actively using an app three seconds before impact. That changes everything. It moves the case from “I wasn’t paying attention” to “I chose to look at my phone instead of watching the road.” Juries understand the difference.
Think about the crosswalks near the Landmark shopping area along East Belleview Avenue. Pedestrians cross there constantly, and the foot traffic only gets heavier during lunch hours when the DTC office buildings empty out. A driver glancing at a text for four seconds at 30 mph covers the length of a football field without looking up. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for an average of five seconds.
That’s not an accident. That’s a choice.
How This Affects Your Claim Specifically
Phone distraction strengthens a pedestrian accident claim in three concrete ways. First, it establishes a clear violation of Colorado law. Breaking SB 24-065 can be used as evidence of negligence per se. That means you don’t have to argue whether the driver was being careless, the law already says they were.
Second, it undercuts the driver’s story. Insurance companies love to blame pedestrians. They’ll say you were wearing dark clothing, crossing outside a crosswalk, or not paying attention yourself. But if the driver was on their phone, those arguments lose power fast. How can a driver claim you appeared “out of nowhere” when they weren’t watching the road to begin with?
Third, phone use can open the door to higher damages. Colorado’s modified comparative negligence rule under C.R.S. § 13-21-111 means your recovery gets reduced by your percentage of fault. But proving the driver was distracted shifts fault heavily onto them. We’ve seen cases where insurance adjusters initially tried to pin 30, 40% of fault on the pedestrian, only to back down completely once phone records came in.
Insurance companies count on you not knowing this. They’ll try to settle quickly before anyone pulls those records.
And here’s what most people don’t realize until it’s too late. Phone data doesn’t last forever. Carriers overwrite records. Apps update. Screenshots disappear. If you’ve been hit by a distracted driver along DTC Boulevard or anywhere in Greenwood Village, getting a lawyer involved early is the single most important step you can take to preserve that evidence. Our pedestrian accident lawyers know exactly how to subpoena those records before they vanish.
A driver on their phone who hits a pedestrian has broken Colorado law. That fact alone reshapes your entire claim.
Colorado’s Distracted Driving Law Creates a Stronger Legal Argument
Here’s where things get real for Greenwood Village pedestrian accident claims. Colorado passed SB 24-065, the hands-free driving law, and it went into effect in 2024. This law makes it illegal for drivers to handle or operate a phone while driving. Not just texting. Touching it at all.
That matters a lot for your claim.
When a driver breaks a traffic law and that violation causes your injury, it’s called “negligence per se.” Plain English: the driver broke a rule designed to keep people safe, you got hurt because of it, so the driver was negligent. You don’t have to prove they were being careless. The law violation does that work for you.
What SB 24-065 Actually Prohibits
The law goes further than most people think. A driver can’t handle a phone for any reason while behind the wheel. They can’t scroll, type, swipe, or browse. They can’t watch videos. They can’t use the phone as a handheld GPS. The only exception is a single tap or swipe to answer a call through a hands-free system, or calling 911 in an emergency.
So if a driver hit you near the Landmark shopping area along East Orchard Road while gripping their phone, they weren’t just being careless. They were breaking Colorado law. We’ve seen this play out in the DTC corridor more times than we can count, heavy foot traffic mixing with distracted commuters leaving office buildings along DTC Parkway and Belleview Avenue, where the volume of workers (Greenwood Village employs roughly 38,500 people despite having only about 15,000 residents) creates a real mismatch between pedestrian exposure and driver attention.
Why This Changes the Insurance Negotiation
Insurance companies count on you not knowing this. They want to argue the driver “made a mistake” or was only briefly glancing at their phone. But under SB 24-065, briefly glancing is still a violation. There’s no gray area. The phone was in their hand, they broke the law.
Before this statute existed, your attorney had to prove the driver was being unreasonable. That left room for the insurance adjuster to argue. Now the conversation shifts. A phone record showing activity at the time of impact, combined with the hands-free law, creates a much harder case for the defense to fight.
“Insurance companies know which firms actually take cases to trial, and that affects how your case is handled. A lot of the high-volume firms don’t actually try cases. In fact, many times they end up calling firms like ours to litigate and take their cases to trial.”, Jason Jordan, Founding Partner
But here’s something most people don’t realize until it’s too late. The negligence per se argument only works if you preserve the evidence. Phone records from the driver’s carrier, app usage data, cell tower pings, all of that can disappear if you wait too long. Colorado’s three-year statute of limitations for motor vehicle accidents under C.R.S. § 13-80-101 gives you time to file. Evidence doesn’t wait three years.
We always tell people to talk to a pedestrian accident lawyer as soon as possible so a preservation letter can go out to the driver’s phone carrier and insurance company. That letter puts them on notice not to destroy data. Without it, the strongest piece of your case could vanish before you ever file a claim.
SB 24-065 didn’t just change driving rules in Colorado. It gave pedestrian accident victims a sharper legal tool. If someone hit you while using their phone in Greenwood Village, that violation is baked into your claim from day one.
For a free legal consultation, call (303) 465-8733
Proving the Driver Was on Their Phone Requires the Right Evidence 
Insurance companies won’t just take your word for it. You can tell them the driver was staring at their phone. You can describe exactly what you saw. But without hard proof, they’ll push back every single time.
We’ve seen this play out hundreds of times. A pedestrian gets hit near the Landmark shopping area in Greenwood Village. Witnesses say the driver never looked up. But if nobody preserves the right records fast enough, that evidence disappears. And once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Here’s what actually matters when building this part of a pedestrian accident claim.
Phone Records and Subpoenas
Cell phone records show exactly when a text was sent, when a call connected, when data was used. If the timestamp lines up with the moment of impact, that’s powerful. But you can’t just call the phone company and ask nicely. You need a formal legal request, a subpoena or court order, to get those records. Carriers don’t keep them forever. Some purge data within months.
Colorado’s hands-free driving law, SB 24-065, makes it illegal for drivers to operate or handle a phone while driving. A violation of that law is strong evidence of negligence. It’s not just a bad habit. It’s breaking the law.
App Data and Digital Footprints
Most people don’t realize this until it’s too late. Social media apps, navigation apps, even music streaming apps create logs. If a driver was scrolling Instagram or switching a podcast at the exact second they hit you, that data exists somewhere. Getting it requires quick action. A preservation letter needs to go out before the driver deletes the app or resets the phone.
We’ve handled cases where the driver’s own Snapchat activity proved they were distracted seconds before a crash along Arapahoe Road. That kind of evidence changes everything.
Surveillance and Dashcam Footage
Greenwood Village has a lot of commercial properties with security cameras. The DTC corridor alone has dozens of office buildings and parking structures with exterior surveillance, which makes sense given how much commercial activity is packed into a city that small. But most systems overwrite footage within 48 to 72 hours. If nobody requests that footage immediately after a pedestrian accident, it gets recorded over and lost permanently.
Dashcam footage from other vehicles matters too. So do traffic cameras at intersections like I-25 and Orchard Road. Every angle helps.
Witness Statements
An eyewitness who saw the driver looking down at their lap carries real weight. But memories fade, details get fuzzy after a week, and after a month people mix up what they saw with what they think they saw. Getting written or recorded statements within days of the accident matters.
Don’t overlook the driver’s own passengers. Sometimes a passenger will confirm the driver was texting. That testimony can be the single strongest piece of evidence in your pedestrian accident claim.
Why Speed Matters
Every type of evidence we just covered has a shelf life. Phone records get purged. Video gets overwritten. Witnesses forget. The driver factory-resets their phone. If you wait too long to act, the proof that the driver was distracted simply won’t exist anymore.
That’s why talking to a pedestrian accident lawyer right away matters so much. Our team sends preservation letters the same day we take a case. which records to request, who to subpoena, and how to lock down digital evidence before it vanishes. Insurance companies count on you not knowing this, and they’re counting on you waiting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a driver’s phone use automatically prove they were at fault for hitting me?
Phone use is strong evidence of fault, but it doesn’t automatically end the case. Colorado’s hands-free law, SB 24-065, means a driver holding their phone broke the law. That’s called negligence per se — the law violation itself shows carelessness. You still need to connect that violation to your injury. But once phone records show the driver was active on their phone at the time of impact, their story about “not seeing you” becomes very hard to defend.
How long do phone records stay available after a pedestrian accident in Greenwood Village?
Phone records don’t last forever, and that’s a real problem. Carriers can overwrite data. Apps update or delete logs. Screenshots disappear. In Greenwood Village, where busy corridors like DTC Boulevard and East Belleview Avenue see heavy pedestrian traffic daily, accidents happen fast and evidence can disappear just as fast. Getting legal help early — before records are gone — is the most important step you can take. A lawyer can send a preservation letter and subpoena those records quickly.
Can the insurance company still blame me even if the driver was on their phone?
Yes, insurance companies will still try to shift blame onto you. They may say you wore dark clothing, crossed outside a crosswalk, or weren’t paying attention. But here’s what changes: under Colorado’s modified comparative negligence rule (C.R.S. § 13-21-111), your recovery is reduced by your share of fault. When phone records prove the driver was distracted, those arguments lose power fast. A driver who wasn’t watching the road can’t credibly claim you appeared “out of nowhere.” Phone evidence directly weakens the insurer’s case against you.
What does Colorado’s hands-free driving law actually prohibit drivers from doing?
SB 24-065 goes further than most people expect. Drivers can’t scroll, type, swipe, browse, watch videos, or use their phone as a handheld GPS. Even briefly gripping the phone is a violation. The only exceptions are a single tap to answer a hands-free call or calling 911 in an emergency. So if a driver hit you near the Landmark shopping area along East Orchard Road while holding their phone, they weren’t just being careless — they were breaking Colorado law. That distinction matters a lot for your claim.
Why does distracted driving happen so often near Greenwood Village’s DTC corridor?
Greenwood Village employs roughly 38,500 people despite having only about 15,000 residents (SOURCE TBD). That creates a daily flood of commuters through DTC Parkway and Belleview Avenue. Office workers check phones during lunch rushes. Drivers navigate unfamiliar lots. Heavy foot traffic mixes with distracted commuters in a tight area. That combination raises the risk for pedestrians significantly. Understanding why these accidents happen helps you explain the scene to an attorney — and to a jury if your case goes that far.
What’s a common mistake people make after being hit by a distracted driver?
The biggest mistake is accepting a quick settlement before anyone pulls the driver’s phone records. Insurance companies often move fast after pedestrian accidents — and for good reason. They know phone data disappears. They know you may not realize how strong your case is. Once you accept a settlement, you typically can’t go back. If you’ve been hit by a driver in Greenwood Village, learning more about how pedestrian accident claims work can help you avoid this trap. Our pedestrian accident lawyer resource page walks through what a full claim actually involves.