The national association representing state highway safety officials on Sunday threw its support behind a growing movement to ban text messaging by drivers, reversing its previous stand.
The Governors Highway Safety Association had come out against new laws banning texting behind the wheel on the grounds that such legislation would prove impossible to enforce. "Highway safety laws are only effective if they can be enforced and if the public believes they will be ticketed for not complying," GHSA Chairman Vernon F. Betkey Jr. said in July.
But as more officials raise the alarm about the number of accidents caused by distracted drivers, the GHSA has reversed its thinking. It points out that laws enforcing seat belt use and drunk driving laws also faced challenges, but are now common practice.
"If every state passes a texting ban, it will send a message to the public that this dangerous practice is unacceptable," Betkey said in a statement Sunday at the association's annual meeting in Savannah, Ga. "We can begin to change the culture that has permitted distracted driving."
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