Increase fine for texting and Driving- How many more people have to die before this is taken seriously.
Increase fine for texting and Driving- How many more people have to die before this is taken seriously.
The Issue
What happened to driving for the sake of driving?
We want to increase the fine for texting and driving. The current law that is in place is not enough to stop people from replying to the 'ding' of an incoming message while driving. First offense texting drivers pay a measly $20 dollars, and for concurrent times after that they pay $50. It is basically a slap on the hand- and not to mention not everyone who text and drives has gotten ticket.
When you think about it, technology is greatly responsible for the rapid rise of car accidents caused by distracted drivers. Yes, distractions existed before cell phones, but according to the National Highway Transportation Administration, texting while driving makes you 23 times more likely to crash. This relatively new phenomenon is responsible for 1,600,000 accidents per year -- that’s 23% of all accidents. It’s an epidemic, and I believe that we should look to technology to help us.
Apple has had a patent for software that can lock the text message function on smartphones while in a moving vehicle since 2008. We think it’s time for this technology to be implemented on a large scale. We do not want to see another live wasted to something so irresponsible and avoidable.
Several anti-texting apps already exist. When activated, they do anything from auto-replying to inform people when a user is driving, to disabling texting. But these apps must be voluntarily turned on, which automatically reduces the number of dedicated users. AT&T encourages people to take a pledge not to text and drive, but again, this is voluntary. Eleven teens die every day in accidents caused by texting.
Phones should only be justified in emergencies, yet 80% of crashes, and 65% of near crashes, involved some form of driver inattention within 3 seconds of the incident.
Please join us in petitioning to increase the fine for texting and driving, as well as calling on Apple, Google and Microsoft, to include text-to-GPS software locking systems as standard on all smartphones. These programs will automatically disable the texting function when certain speeds are detected.
The above photo shows the reality and the driver was found clutching their phone.
The Issue
What happened to driving for the sake of driving?
We want to increase the fine for texting and driving. The current law that is in place is not enough to stop people from replying to the 'ding' of an incoming message while driving. First offense texting drivers pay a measly $20 dollars, and for concurrent times after that they pay $50. It is basically a slap on the hand- and not to mention not everyone who text and drives has gotten ticket.
When you think about it, technology is greatly responsible for the rapid rise of car accidents caused by distracted drivers. Yes, distractions existed before cell phones, but according to the National Highway Transportation Administration, texting while driving makes you 23 times more likely to crash. This relatively new phenomenon is responsible for 1,600,000 accidents per year -- that’s 23% of all accidents. It’s an epidemic, and I believe that we should look to technology to help us.
Apple has had a patent for software that can lock the text message function on smartphones while in a moving vehicle since 2008. We think it’s time for this technology to be implemented on a large scale. We do not want to see another live wasted to something so irresponsible and avoidable.
Several anti-texting apps already exist. When activated, they do anything from auto-replying to inform people when a user is driving, to disabling texting. But these apps must be voluntarily turned on, which automatically reduces the number of dedicated users. AT&T encourages people to take a pledge not to text and drive, but again, this is voluntary. Eleven teens die every day in accidents caused by texting.
Phones should only be justified in emergencies, yet 80% of crashes, and 65% of near crashes, involved some form of driver inattention within 3 seconds of the incident.
Please join us in petitioning to increase the fine for texting and driving, as well as calling on Apple, Google and Microsoft, to include text-to-GPS software locking systems as standard on all smartphones. These programs will automatically disable the texting function when certain speeds are detected.
The above photo shows the reality and the driver was found clutching their phone.
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Petition created on November 14, 2015