AAA Aims to Ban Texting While Driving, Across America

Texting is at an all time high and the wireless telecommunications association, CTIA, claims that 110 billion text messages are sent each month. Recent research shows that approximately 1 in 5 U.S. drivers admit to texting while operating a vehicle in the last 30 days. In an effort to improve roadway safety across America, the AAA and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety are working to ban all texting (and emailing) while driving in each state by 2013.

Robert L. Darbelnet, AAA President and CEO, claims “The new technologies that help us multitask in our everyday lives and increasingly popular social media sites present a hard-to-resist challenge to the typically safe driver. Enacting texting bans for drivers in all 50 states can halt the spread of this dangerous practice among motorists nationwide, and is a key legislative priority for AAA in state capitols.”

As of now, there are 18 states along with Washington, D.C. that have laws regulating texting while driving for all drivers, while Maine and Iowa prohibit only teens from texting behind the wheel. California has recently enacted a texting while driving ban and the Auto Club of Southern California has issued studies showing that since the ban in January, texting while driving has decreased by 70 percent.

The AAA wants the rest of the nation to follow suit and is encouraging people to take part in Heads-Up Driving Week October 5-11. AAA President and CEO Peter Kissinger said, “We are asking everyone to rethink their driving behavior and take the first step toward becoming distraction-free by trying it for a week and then doing it for life.” Drivers can visit AAAFoundation.org to sign a pledge committing to distraction-free driving as well as read tips on eliminating distractions in vehicles.