William Atkins
Wednesday, 29 July 2009 18:56
Science -
Health
Page 2 of 3
Tom Dingus, director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, responded to the results of the study by saying,
“You should never do this [texting while driving]. It should be illegal.”
Currently 14 U.S. states ban texting while driving while 36 states do not such a ban. Some of the states that ban texting include California, Alaska, Louisiana, and New Jersey, along with the District of Columbia.
Dingus adds,
"Given recent catastrophic crash events and disturbing trends, there is an alarming amount of misinformation and confusion regarding cell phone and texting use while behind the wheel of a vehicle. The findings from our research at VTTI can help begin to clear up these misconceptions as they are based on real–world driving data. We conduct transportation safety research in an effort to equip the public with information that can save lives." [VTTI]
At the moment, legislation is being proposed by the U.S. Congress to ban texting while driving uniformly across all of the United States.
New York Senator Charles Schumer states,
"The federal government ought to pass a law banning this dangerous and growing practice to protect the millions of Americans on our nation's roads. It is a matter of public safety." [Associated Press: “
Lawmakers to propose ban on driving while texting”]
Schumer, along with Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina are sponsoring the proposed legislation.
The AP article states,
“The legislation would require states to ban texting or e-mailing while operating a moving vehicle or lose 25 percent of their annual federal highway funding. It would be patterned after the way the Congress required states to adopt a national drunken driving ban.”
Page three concludes.
