Yes, thousands of accidents are caused by distracted driving and there aren't substantial judgments. More often than not, my guess would be, the judgments are not substantial because either the damages weren't significant, there was a failure of the proof of the distraction or the person who caused the accident is underinsured and broke.
If a distracted driver causes $2,000 in body damage and $1,000 in meds, there won't be a substantial judgment. Or, if the Plaintiff's attorney doesn't get the case in time to get the phone, its hard to make the distracted driving claim. Or if the driver had state minimums (25/50 where I am), the victim had no UIM and the driver is uncollectible, the case might not be worked as hard as it could be. Another reason might be that distracted driving judgments may be dischargeable in bankruptcy but DWI civil judgments are not under express provisions of the bankruptcy code..
Contrast that with a case with catastrophic injuries when you've got the actual phone preserved and the distracted driver was in a Wells Fargo armored car, a FedEx semi, a Bentley or an LC. In those cases, there is greater potential for a substantial judgments because the vehicles are heavy, there is likely plenty of coverage and collectability.
A question I haven't looked into is whether the newer Event Data Recorders (a/k/a black box) record the phone's connection to the factory stereo and whether the driver was on a phone call in the seconds before the crash. They typically record whether the stereo was on and I can't see why they couldn't note the blue tooth connection and if there was a call in process. Perhaps some manufacturers do. I would guess that it won't be long until they all do.
If you had the actual phone and the EDR you could corollate the time of the accident and other types of phone activity (instagram, youtube, netflix...). Obviously, no one is going to the trouble to get the EDR, extract and decode the data and then do the same to the phone in fender benders, so no substantial judgment for distraction. With Apple phones if the driver doesn't give you the password you couldn't get into it anyhow. In any event, the police usually don't keep the driver's phone as evidence even if there was a fatality. So, the clever driver gets a new phone and there goes most of your proof.
Back to my original point though, which was a response to a rant by another user about how dangerous distracted driving is: Under the law if you can prove it, you can get punitive damages (or be liable for punitive damages).
