According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted, cell-phone-tethered drivers were to blame for an estimated 6,000 deaths and a half-million injuries in 2008. The overwhelming, specific cause: texting behind the wheel. To further quantify the ever-growing threat: more than 135 billion text messages are now sent monthly. That’s an 80 per cent increase from 2008. While the number of alcohol-related deaths has been declining over the last 30 years, the toll from cell-phoning drivers has been increasing exponentially.
The disturbing trend is why United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has issued a global call to end distracted driving. He’s already started with the U.N. Its 40,000 employees are barred from text messaging while operating vehicles on official business. At last count, 32 countries — including Brazil, France, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom — have passed laws restricting drivers’ use of hand-held devices.
In this country, 26 states and the District of Columbia now prohibit texting while driving. It’s why President Barack Obama signed an executive order banning texting while driving on federal business. It’s why Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is pushing for tougher laws and more enforcement. It’s why the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is on a mission to have legislation in place by 2013 for nationwide restrictions. And it’s why Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a bill that would require states to ban texting while driving — or else lose 25 per cent of their allocated federal highway funds. (In Florida’s case that would be about $195 million.)
Among those not yet part of the trend to rein in this menace that inevitably kills and maims: Florida. The recent legislative session, the one that relied on trust-fund raids and disappearing stimulus dollars in lieu of long-term, revenue-raising solutions, left it unaddressed. Again.
No reason, let alone rationalizations about personal responsibility and governmental intrusions, is acceptable. This is a matter of public safety. It’s also a matter that is eminently preventable. Texting drivers are not multi-tasking mavens. They are drivers who are demonstrably more distracted than if they were legally drunk.
It’s an ongoing outrage that drivers would be so cavalier and careless. It’s an absolute obscenity that those with the legislative wherewithal to do something about it, don’t.