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Following a recent study that revealed road users engaging in text-based communication while controlling a vehicle are around 20 times more likely to crash, the U.S. Senate has introduced a bill that proposes to make text messaging while driving an illegal activity.
Keep your eyes on the ROAD! Image: gcbb/Flickr.
If the proposed bill, created and supported by members of the Democratic Party, is successfully passed, individual states across the country would be given a two-year deadline for the creation of specific laws and penalties designed to prevent drivers from composing text-based mobile messages.
Any states failing to bring the new law into effect would face the prospect of a 25 percent cut in funding to their annual federal highway allowance, reports The Washington Post.
The bill arrives a mere 24 hours after the appearance of a related study into the driving habits of commercial truck drivers by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
According to the study, drivers distracted from the road while composing a mobile phone text message are significantly more likely to be involved in an accident when measured against those with their attentions clearly focused on nothing more than driving.
Keen to point out that its research applied to all road users, not just truckers, the Virginia Tech study revealed that drivers engaged in texting were 23 times more likely to crash their vehicles, while dialling on a mobile handset or using some other form of portable electronic device increased the associated risk by a factor of six.
The District of Columbia and some 13 states in the U.S. (including Virginia) are ahead of the government’s evolutionary curve regarding the implementation of text-based deterrents, with vehicle-related bans either already in place or scheduled to be introduced before the close of 2009.
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