Do You Text and Drive?

Do you text and drive? The number of monthly text messages has increased in the past three years to 110.4 billion in December 2008, up from 9.8 billion in December 2005, according to the wireless industry trade organization CTIA. When you text and drive you aren't really paying attention, your reflexes are much slower, and you're endangering the lives of lots of people. After numerous crashes due to texting and driving states are finally taking an initiative. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have banned texting while driving, with 10 passing laws this year.
Even though businesses are creating new technologies where you can have a headset on and have your hands on the wheel or where you can speak your texts (which costs .29 a message) this still won't prevent you from crashing into someone or someone crashing into you. Even though your hands are on the wheel, you're head isn't thinking about the road it's thinking about how you're going to respond to someone.
All of the state of Hawaii’s counties have enacted distracted driving laws. If you drive in Hawaii, texting and the use of cell phones are illegal. So far, about $1.6 million in fines have been paid by violators. In Honolulu if your caught the fine is up to $147. As of June 2011 these are the ticket totals in the four counties:
Oahu County: 20,654 tickets
Hawaii County: 1,359 tickets
Kauai County: 930 tickets
Maui County: 964 tickets
I think every state should enforce basically the same law that covers all the grounds of if you use your phone while you're driving, you'll either get a hefty ticket or arrested and do a little jail time. And just abrogate some states minor laws about texting and driving. Because is a slap on the wrist really going to stop people from doing it?

Sources: Hawaii Laws and Wall Street Journal
By: Amanda Staton