Gov. Pat Quinn of the state of Illinois will sign an amendment to the state’s Vehicle Code this week, making Illinois the 17th state in the US to have a ban on texting (text messaging) while driving.
The bill does have the exception however if the driver pulls over to park, or puts the car in neutral while stopped in traffic.
Since last year, 16 states have banned texting while driving including Oregon, New Hampshire, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Washington DC.
There are currently senators planning to push a bill that would make it federally illegal to text while driving. Recent studies have shown increased accident rates caused in part thanks to texting and show that texters are at substantially increased risk of getting into accidents.
“With drunk driving it was important to pass tough laws, but the laws won’t really have any effect unless they’re enforced and the public knows about it and it’s properly adjudicated,” says Barbara Harsha of the Governor’s Highway Safety Association. “So passing a law isn’t the solution, it’s only part of it.”
Result for: accidents
According to WCBS, 15-year-old Alexa Longueira was walking in Staten Island, New York last week, texting on her phone when she fell into an open manhole, recieving minor injuries.
She also lost a shoe in the sewage. Speaking of the incident Alexa says her fall was “really gross… shocking and scary.”
Now obviously, the accident was not entirely the girl’s fault. There were no warning signs around the unattended manhole. A nearby Department of Environmental Protection worker pulled her out and continued his job of flushing the sewer after. The Department then issued an apology for the lack of orange cones or warning signs.
Despite the lack of warning signs however, many observers almost completely blame Longueira for not seeing an open manhole and being completely detached from her surroundings.
The problem of texting has been in the news of late especially in regards to driving, where a string of accidents have been attributed to distracted drivers texting while behind the wheel.
