Nationwide Ban on Texting While Driving May Be Coming
We have written several times about studies and reports indicating that the risk of causing a serious traffic accident goes way up when a driver is sending or receiving text messages while driving. In the past, studies compared the danger of driving while talking on a cell phone to that of driving drunk. More recent studies have found that driving while texting is more dangerous than driving while talking on a cell phone because it is more distracting to the driver and takes his/her eyes off of the road for longer periods of time.
A recent study indicated that one in five drivers has read or sent a text while driving. One would expect this number to go up for at least two reasons. First, the article also indicated that nearly everyone surveyed considered driving while texting inappropriate so some people may not admit to the practice. Secondly, as handheld communication devices get cheaper and more prevalent, more people will have the ability to text while driving.
Because of the studies that indicate how dangerous driving while texting is, the significant majority of people who seem to favor a ban on driving while texting and the large number of people who actually do drive and text, we can expect a law in the future that makes it illegal to drive and send or receive text messages.
