Lastly, we need enforcement of the law. Enforcement and penalties are not keeping pace. “You can make something against the law, but if the odds of being pulled over are slim and the penalty is low, it won’t change people’s behavior,” says David Strayer, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Utah (p7, 2010). Without real enforcement of the law, all the other suggestions to fight distracted driving would be pointless. As mentioned earlier, enforcement of the law will be a daunting task, but I speaking to a different type of enforcement. In April 2010, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched the "Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other" enforcement program in Hartford, Connecticut, and Syracuse, New
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In an article by Bloomberg Business (Aho, 2014, para 1) traffic fatalities dropped 3 percent in states that allow police to pull over drivers for texting, according to new research from the American Journal of Public Health. Analyzing national traffic fatality data over an 11-year period, researchers studied the effects of primary enforcement laws, as well as of laws that ban the practice but allow police to write tickets only in conjunction with other traffic violations. Primary enforcement laws proved most effective, preventing an average of nearly 20 vehicular deaths per state, per …show more content…
The study also looked at the findings of NHTSA programs conducted in Hartford, Connecticut, and Syracuse, New York, in April 2010 and found that the number of drivers observed using a hand-held cell phone fell 57 percent in Hartford and 32 percent in Syracuse (Insurance Information Institute, 2015, para. 11). These numbers are significant and very encouraging. Additionally, several cell phone companies have or currently are developing technology that prevents the receipt of call and texts while driving. This technology is intended to limit dangerous distractions by temporarily interrupting service so that people do not answer their phones when they are behind the wheel (Insurance Information Institute, 2015, para. 21). Lastly, Most of these laws have primary enforcement provisions. The Utah law, passed in May 2009, is the toughest in the nation. An offender convicted of causing an accident that injures or kills someone while texting behind the wheel faces up to 15 years in prison (Insurance Information Institute, 2015, para.
In an article by Bloomberg Business (Aho, 2014, para 1) traffic fatalities dropped 3 percent in states that allow police to pull over drivers for texting, according to new research from the American Journal of Public Health. Analyzing national traffic fatality data over an 11-year period, researchers studied the effects of primary enforcement laws, as well as of laws that ban the practice but allow police to write tickets only in conjunction with other traffic violations. Primary enforcement laws proved most effective, preventing an average of nearly 20 vehicular deaths per state, per …show more content…
The study also looked at the findings of NHTSA programs conducted in Hartford, Connecticut, and Syracuse, New York, in April 2010 and found that the number of drivers observed using a hand-held cell phone fell 57 percent in Hartford and 32 percent in Syracuse (Insurance Information Institute, 2015, para. 11). These numbers are significant and very encouraging. Additionally, several cell phone companies have or currently are developing technology that prevents the receipt of call and texts while driving. This technology is intended to limit dangerous distractions by temporarily interrupting service so that people do not answer their phones when they are behind the wheel (Insurance Information Institute, 2015, para. 21). Lastly, Most of these laws have primary enforcement provisions. The Utah law, passed in May 2009, is the toughest in the nation. An offender convicted of causing an accident that injures or kills someone while texting behind the wheel faces up to 15 years in prison (Insurance Information Institute, 2015, para.