A recent report prepared by a major children’s hospital and the nursing school of a major university in a cooperative effort suggested that law enforcement efforts at curbing texting and driving might not be as effective as hoped.
For example, the study found that, even when children under 10 are in the car, half of the adults surveyed admitted to using their cell phones. While it was not clear whether the cell phone use was with or without a hands-free device, being on the phone is not ideal, especially when one is traveling with kids.
More disturbingly, of those surveyed, around one-third admitted to actually taking their eyes off of the road long enough to read a text message. Moreover, about 1 in 4 of these people also admitted to using their phones to type up a text.
A sizeable number of those surveyed even admitted to looking at Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and the like while moving along in their vehicles with smaller children in tow.
It is quite possible that law enforcement officers could be more vigilant about stopping people who are texting and driving and prosecutors and judges could be more aggressive about imposing significant penalties, at least in the form of hefty fines.
Moreover, insurance companies should not hesitate to refuse to cover people who engage in such behavior, which would make it harder for such people to keep their cars legally on the road.
However, the reality is that as technology becomes more and more a part of our lives and more and more people rely on smartphones, the problem with irresponsible cell phone use behind the wheel of a moving car will be remaining with us for quite some time. With this problem comes the possibility of more traffic fatalities and catastrophic injuries from car wrecks.
