N.C. Drivers Stop Texting, Gain Focus

Saturday’s lead editorial encourages S.C. legislators to emulate North Carolina in passing a ban on text-messaging by drivers.

This week marked the beginning of a well-deserved ban in North Carolina on sending text-messages while driving, a practice so dangerous that state lawmakers should be fighting it with every tool at their disposal.

The risk of a crash is 23 times greater while a driver is texting, according to a recent Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study. Texting causes drivers to avert their eyes from the road for full five-second intervals, during which time at highway speed they cover the length of a football field.

“Texting is in its own universe of risk,” one of the study's managers was quoted in the New York Times.

The N.C. ban has a $100 penalty that can reach $230 with fines for anyone caught sending or reading a text message while the car is in motion, though checking the phone while stopped at a light is OK.

South Carolina has no such ban, though several bills have been proposed. One would allow police to search phones for evidence of texting during traffic stops. Crashes involving texting would incur jail time and steep fines. Another bill would make cell phone use a liability factor in crash lawsuits. Any bill that discourages the practice will help.

Texting is an easy legislative target because it still has a relatively small constituency. Studies have shown that talking on the phone while driving, even on headsets, is also dangerous, taking drivers' minds off the road and increasing the likelihood of a crash to that of a drunken driver.

We hope lawmakers will soon show the courage to take on this dangerous practice as well.