Safety Advocates in Tennessee Seek Ban on Texting While Driving

AAA East Tennessee says it will urge lawmakers to make the highways text-free in the 2009 General Assembly.

Automobile association spokesman Don Lindsey tells the Kingsport Times-News a separate law banning text messaging while driving is needed because texting interferes with a driver’s perception and slows reaction time.

A Tennessee Department of Safety study shows steady increases between 2003 and 2006 in automobile crashes involving a driver who was either talking on a cell phone or texting.

The association and a University of Tennessee student organization plan to address the General Assembly. They cite a Harvard University and University of Utah study that says 2,600 people have died in cell phone-texting related crashes and drivers who use cell phones while driving have the same motor skills as people with a 0.08 percent blood alcohol content.

___

Information from: Kingsport Times-News, http://www.timesnews.net