Virginia Considers Ban On Driving While Texting

Under the Virginia proposal, texting while driving would be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $250 and court costs.

Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, said it would be difficult to enforce the law because it's hard to peer into moving cars. But she said officers would be looking for the problems that often come from driver distractions, such as weaving or slowing down.

Joe Farren, spokesman for CTIA-The Wireless Association, said his organization does not oppose the ban. "We don't think anyone should text message while driving,'' he said. "We don't have a problem with that."

Lon Anderson, director of public and government affairs at AAA Mid-Atlantic, whose membership area includes Maryland and Virginia, said texting is different from talking on a cellphone and deserves special consideration.

"Texting belongs in its own category. It is extremely dangerous,'' he said. "There is no place for driving and texting."

The first reported accident caused by texting may have been in Tennessee in 2005, when a man died after he lost control of his pickup truck and plunged down an embankment. In Colorado that same year, a teenager who was texting while driving killed a bicyclist.

In June 2007, five members of a high school cheerleading squad were killed in New York, and police said they think the driver lost control while sending a text message.

Del. Joe T. May (R-Loudoun), chairman of the House Transportation Committee, where the bill is likely to be debated, said he agrees that texting while driving involves multiple physical and mental tasks but that he wants to look at accident data before he decides whether to support the bill.

Texting while driving has become popular only in recent years, and few studies specifically measure that distraction.

A 2007 study by Nationwide Mutual Insurance estimated that 73 percent of drivers use phones while driving and 20 percent text while behind the wheel. The texting number goes up to 37 percent for drivers ages 18 to 27.

A national survey conducted by AAA and Seventeen magazine in July found that 61 percent of teens admit to risky driving habits. Of that number, 46 percent said they text while driving.

"Obviously, text messaging is a huge distraction. No one could dispute that,'' said Janet Brooking, executive director of Drive Smart Virginia, a statewide nonprofit advocacy group. "We could save a lot of lives with these bills."