Kristen- I think you are referencing the T accident in Boston and I believe they said the investigators checked all the cell records and said she wasn't on the cell but my memory is hazy on that. I think there should be more tickets issued for inattentive driving and am of the strong feeling that since the majority of states have that law on the books there does not need to be another law for cell phones. I would welcome an ad campaign to specifically call out that if you texting while driving you are breaking an existing law, the one of inattentive driving. I would also like to see "no fault" done away with, because if I am hit by a person that is not paying attention then in most cases it is their fault, and if not there should be some way to distribute the "fault" on a percentage basis.

@Wendy -- In many states, the "no fault" designation is only in parking lots. I've always assumed that this is because so many incidents take place in parking lots that it would clog up the court system to have it another way. I don't know if that is actually the reason, it's just what I've told myself. I wonder if the "no fault" standard applies for all traffic in some states because of a similar reason?? Very good questions. Maybe a civil attorney who handles traffic violations could help us answer these ...

texting while driving is one of my pet peeves. just last week, a woman in the neighborhood was texting while she was driving. we didn't know exactly what she was going to do as we waited for her to go at a 3-way stop. she finally went. when we got up near her we realized she was texting. she had her head down and both hands on the phone. she started weaving a bit because 1)she wasn't looking 2)she was more concerned about texting and had her head down looking at the phone. i think she looked up maybe twice and put her hands on the steering wheel twice. she held up the right turn lane to get onto a major street as she took no notice of all the cars behind her.

we live in a town of about 6000 people and their are a lot of kids around. i don't even want to imagine what kind of things can happen through this selfish act. if it's that important, pull over!

Well, I don't know how your laws are, because I'm from Brazil... but here it's illegal to TALK on the cel while driving (I'm not sure, but I think even if you use a headphone)... I don't think there's any law specifically about texting, but I couldn't imagine how safe that can be if just talking can already make you inattentive...

I can't add much except to agree that texting while driving is really irresponsible. I live in California where the state just implemented a hands free law which I think is a step in the right direction. II find having an ear piece distracting so I rarely use it. There's almost nothing in my life that can't wait for me to be done driving or pull over.

The first I'd heard of people texting while driving was in an article about that T accident (I didn't read any follow-up articles, so it could be as Wendy said that they found texting wasn't a factor, but at the time, it was suspected). I couldn't believe people would even need to be told that texting while driving is a bad idea - it seems like common sense to me. But apparently it's quite widespread. That same article referenced a survey where something like 48 percent of people polled aged 18 to 24 admitted to texting while driving. Even now that I've seen these statistics, I'm amazed that people can be so stupid.