Guest blog courtesy of Jim S. Adler & Associates, Houston, TX.

Sweeping across America is a belated but welcome tide – a tide which finally applies common sense to driving laws. That tide resists the explosion of people who unwisely make phone calls and send text messages while operating heavy machinery at fast speeds among intricate traffic patterns. That is, it resists those who call and text while driving a car.

Such reckless driver distractions are killing and injuring thousands of Americans in cell phone car accidents or texting traffic collisions in every state. The car carnage has gotten so bad, in fact, that U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has called for a summit on distracted drivers to be held in September.

Meanwhile, Illinois waits for Gov. Pat Quinn to sign into law recent legislation aimed to curb digital addictions among drivers. Designed to amend the Illinois Vehicle Code, it prohibits drivers from using electronic communication devices to compose, send or receive electronic messages while operating a motor vehicle on public roads.

Already, 14 states and the District of Columbia have passed such laws, and Democratic senators are pressing to withhold 25 per cent of federal highway funding to states which don’t fall in line.

If that sounds unreasonable, ask yourself how reasonable it was for a California commuter train operator to be texting while driving – and kill 25 people in a crash. Or ask yourself how reasonable it was for an Ohio bus driver to be talking on her cell phone when she ran over and killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Or ask yourself how reasonable it’s been for teens such as a Peoria, Ill. 17-year-old to drive off the road and die when her new-found driving skills couldn’t keep up with her texting obsession.

Larger numbers don’t lie. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says drivers on cell phones caused a thousand deaths and 240,000 car accidents in 2002 alone – before texting even entered the picture. Now, up to 28 per cent of Americans admit texting while driving, while 80 per cent make cell phone calls while driving.

Some say all this doesn’t matter – that enforcing anti-texting laws will be too difficult, and therefore we shouldn’t pass them. Funny, but when seatbelt laws were first passed, naysayers claimed the same thing — and today thousands of lives are saved annually by widespread seatbelt use.

Clearly, education and enlightenment must match any new laws. People need to learn that they aren’t omniscient or invulnerable when it comes to multi-tasking while driving a car – and they need to do so before learning it the hard way when it’s too late.

Meanwhile, states are right to step up and stem the tide with new legislation. That includes Texas, where a proposed new law will ban teens under 18 from texting while driving, and where some cities and school districts have passed laws banning texting and cell phone calling while driving in school zones.

Texas car accident lawyers with personal injury firm Jim S. Adler & Associates ardently support such measures, and hope more will follow to protect innocent lives. Without a doubt the tide is turning, but much more must be done before many more lives are lost.

Bruce Westbrook
Internet Writer/Editor
Jim S. Adler & Associates
Houston, TX