According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, drivers take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds while texting. FMCSA research shows drivers who text are more than 20 times more likely to get in an accident than non-distracted drivers. For states that ban texting for all drivers, see one of my older blog posts.

If the law passes, it would go into effect July 1 and make Georgia the 20th state to outlaw texting while driving. Colorado, Louisiana, New York, Virginia and Washington are among the 19 states that ban test messages for all drivers. Nine states ban text messaging for teen drivers.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that distracted drivers account for almost 80% of all crashes and 65% of near crashes. Teens using a driving simulator while sending text messages or searching their MP3s slowed down, wove in and out of their lanes, and in some cases, ran over pedestrians in a study presented to the Pediatric Academic Societies.

14 states and the District of Columbia now have laws banning texting while driving (as of July 2009). It’s time for all states to be uniform in the texting ban. Passengers tell the driver to stop texting!

While we all get distracted by many things that cross our line of vision while driving, there are some things people intentionally do that cause major distractions. Texting while driving is one such distraction. Texting has grown from nearly 10 billion messages a month in 2005 to more than 110 billion in 2008 according to CTAIA-The Wirelesss association, the cellular phone industry’s trade group.

Unfortunately, as texting increases, so do texting related vehicle accidents. We are reading about more and more cases where people are seriously injured or killed as a result of a driver texting while operating a vehicle. These accidents include everything from passenger cars to trains to air disasters caused by texting air traffic controllers.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that when drivers of heavy trucks texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater. A separate report by Car and Driver magazine found that texting and driving is more dangerous than drunken driving. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there are currently 18 states and the District of Columbia that have passed laws making texting while driving illegal. I am proud to say that Louisiana is one of the 18 states that have passed laws making it illegal to text while driving. If we used common sense, we would not have to rely upon our legislatures to make it illegal to text while driving. However, when we look at the statistics, we know that the bottom line is that all states should get on board and make texting while driving illegal.

A separate report by Car and Driver magazine found that texting and driving is more dangerous than drunken driving. Texting has grown from nearly 10 billion messages a month in December, 2005 to more than 110 billion in December 2008, according to CTIA, the cellular phone industries’ trade group.

Legislation has been introduced in Washington to ban texting while driving. Although enforcement may be difficult, the education and advertisement of enforcement should tune in drivers that text. 14 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws making texting while driving illegal. The federal government is in a transportation spending mode from billions of dollars to bale out the car manufacturers to the Cash for Clunkers program. Sufficient funding to eliminate and enforce distractions of the 18 wheeler truck driver, the tour bus driver, and those of passenger vehicles is warranted to make the road way free from accidents caused by distracted drivers.