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Poll: 89% Of Americans Want Texting While Driving Banned

In late June, five teenage girls were killed in a late-night car accident in upstate New York. They had all just graduated from high school, their lives ahead of them. After the accident, police discovered that the girl driving had been sending text messages in the moments leading up to the crash. Would a ban have saved their lives?

Young lives cut short needlessly is always a tragedy. It is even more tragic when we realize that accidents could have been avoided if drivers were doing what they are supposed to be doing: concentrating on the road. It seems tragedies like this, which made national headlines, have jolted our point of view when it comes to texting while driving.

In a recent Harris Interactive poll, 89% of Americans said they would support legislation that outlaws sending text messages while behind the wheel. In fact, 91% of Americans believe that people who text and drive are as dangerous as drunks on the road.

Likening texting motorists to drunk drivers, though, doesn't seem to slow down the American populace from checking their SMS or e-mail messages while driving. Fully two-thirds of those polled admitted to taking a peek at their in-boxes, and 57% said they had pecked out messages on their phones when in their cars. The balance is tipped to younger users, though. Those aged 18 to 34 were far more likely to text and drive. The over-55 set hardly ever does.

Washington state already has enacted legislation banning texting while driving and so has New Jersey. Making calls and sending text messages from phones while driving both carry fines ($250 and $100, respectively) in the Garden State. Other states have proposals in the works.

But are these bans really going to stop people? Until police enforce the rules strictly, I find it hard to believe that it will make a difference.

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