Texting while driving on the rise
Photo by ~W~/Flickr
By JUDGE TOM JACOBS
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the results of a study of high school students about their driving habits. Surprisingly, 58% of seniors report having texted or emailed while driving during the previous month. About 43% of juniors admitted doing the same thing.
These findings come from the first federal study of the subject. Distracted-driving deaths account for approximately 16% of teen motor-vehicle deaths. As of this writing, 39 states ban texting while driving, and 10 ban both texting and hand-held cell phone use. States are cracking down on offenders including jail/prison time when injuries are sustained.
See here for a recent case of a teenager sentenced in June, 2012 to 2 1/2 years in prison.
AsktheJudge.info has written several times on this subject and will continue to keep you posted on efforts to stem the tide of drivers who text. A few seconds of distracted driving can seriously change your life – it’s not worth that one message or text. Some of our posts are listed here – we can’t say enough about this problem that continues to damage many lives across the nation.
Judge Tom Jacobs blogs at http://www.askthejudge.info/.
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