Yes, as in using a phone or being subject to a perception altering substance, as I stated. But you can also become distracted while driving without the ability to quickly stop driving. This could be the fault of the driver (paying attention to irrelevant things), or out of their control (conditions warrant splitting your attention between the road in front of you an another circumstance you have no control over). We don't punish these because we person is either not willfully causing the situation, or there is no way to determine if their behavior contributed.
Another way to think of it is that you aren't punished for drunk driving, but for breaking the law, and the law has been decided by determining that drunken driving provides unacceptable risk overall. Whether individually a person would have caused harm is irrelevant, we create a enforce laws for the good of all, and without enforcement, or selective enforcement without due process, we have a slew of other problems.
You were remarking on the difference between distracted driving and drunk driving. I was replying that your stated difference did not sound like a difference at all.
Given the context of the surrounding discussion, I didn't think anyone was talking about situations of accidental distraction while driving.
I was trying to additionally distinguish between accidental and intentional distracted driving, because I find that when a distinction can be made like that but it isn't made clear, people end up talking past each other about slightly different things but with the same name.
Wise enough. I suppose I was taking it for granted that we were discussing intentional actions that place others in danger, and automatically excluding accidents.
Another way to think of it is that you aren't punished for drunk driving, but for breaking the law, and the law has been decided by determining that drunken driving provides unacceptable risk overall. Whether individually a person would have caused harm is irrelevant, we create a enforce laws for the good of all, and without enforcement, or selective enforcement without due process, we have a slew of other problems.