Texting And Driving Laws

In today’s society, American travelers are now faced with driving with a higher risk of fatal or near fatal accidents as a result of the misusage of cellular phones while driving. Distracted driving is dangerous for the driver and in many cases, result in serious harm to other drivers on the road. What are the dangers that drivers face by continuing to openly break the laws for texting and driving? The number of lives lost due to texting and driving in America are increasing at epidemic levels on a daily basis. The current texting and driving laws are too relaxed. In some states, texting and driving violations are not even punishable by law. A more in depth investigation on establishing more stringent texting and driving laws is definitely needed in order to keep American lives safe on the road. According to textinganddrivingsafety.com, a comparison was made comparing how only five minutes of time taken away from the road to send a text would be like driving at 55 mph for the length of a football field without looking at the road. This comparison clearly shows that it is almost …show more content…
Virgin Islands currently ban text messaging for all drivers. Mississippi was the 45th state to ban texting while driving. Of the 46 states, texting and driving is a primary enforcement law for 41 states. A primary enforcement law would allow an officer to issue a citation specifically for violating the texting and driving law without having to have any other violation as a basis for investigating a stop. According to Tasneem Raja, the penalties for texting and driving are not severe. For example, fines range as low as $20.00 to an average high of $750.00. The state of Alaska leads the nation for a severe fine of $10,000.00. In the state of Mississippi, if a motorist is caught in the act of texting and driving, they will be served a fine starting at