Personal Injury Law

Texting While Driving Illegal In 13 States

By Jane Akre

Federal Ban Considered As Momentum Grows

Last fall the conductor of a commuter train in the Los Angeles area ran a red signal while texting. He ran into an oncoming freight train, killing 25 aboard.  

In May, a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority accident sent nearly 50 to the hospital. The trolley operator said he was texting his girlfriend.

Russell and Kim Hurd lost their daughter Heather in a car accident last year, reports CBS News. Heather's fiancé was injured and a woman in another vehicle was killed. The tractor-trailer driver in a 90,000 pound vehicle several cars behind her was texting and simply didn't stop.

Russell Hurd testified before a Maryland Senate committee hearing about the need for a ban on text messaging while driving last February.

Not surprisingly, the incidence of "Driving While Texting" or DWT, is largely a function of age. For adults, one in seven are guilty of the dangerous habit. 

An estimated 20 percent of drivers are texting while behind the wheel, according to a Nationwide Insurance study.   Among young people, between the ages of 18 to 24, that number skyrockets to 66 percent. 

According to NHTSA, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15 to 20 year-olds, so adding a device that requires the user to concentrate on a tiny screen while punching miniature keys, does nothing to improve that record. 

How to stop it

One school in South Florida puts teens in a simulator to illustrate the dangers of texting while driving. "Even if you take your eyes off the road for two seconds you could drive off the road or hit another car" one student observed. 

In an American Journal of Psychiatry report, Dr. Jerald J. Block says that like excessive gaming, or virtual sex, e-mail and texting may be part of a compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder and a form of addiction.

The Laws

New Hampshire's Senate has just sent a bill to the governor that bans texting and typing on a laptop while driving. The governor has not said he will sign it.   Violators would face a $100 fine. What would be allowed is entering a number or name in a cell phone to make a call. 

Tennessee has a bill pending before its governor that also bans texting while driving. 

Current law bans handheld cell phone in five states - California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Washington, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.   These are primary enforcement laws, meaning an officer may write a ticket simply for using a handheld cell phone while driving with the exception of Washington State.

Additionally drivers in 21 states who are novice drivers are banned from using cell phones.  School bus drivers in 17 states and the District of Columbia are prohibited from using cell phones when passengers are present.

Text Messaging - Now banned in 13 states along with the District of Columbia.  10 states prohibit texting by novice drivers and only two states restrict school bus drivers from texting while driving. 

The Governors Highway Safety Association tracks the changes in all 50 states.  #

Full post as published by InjuryBoard on June 10, 2009 (boomark / email).