States With The Harshest Penalties For Texting And Driving

By Aaron Crowe
Texting and driving isn’t banned in Hawaii, but travel 3,000 miles north to Alaska, and it’s a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and a year in prison.
That’s the biggest discrepancy between states in texting punishments. Most states fine drivers for texting from $20 to $100 or so, according to an analysis by DMV.com, a website that isn’t affiliated with any government agencies.
“I guess it’s just how serious they think the issue is,” says J.P. Zeni, the website’s owner, on why states differ so much in how much they fine offenders.
Bans also differ by state on the use of hand-held devices — which states such as California allow if the phone is hands-free — and on banning all passengers from texting.
Texting while driving is the leading cause of death among teens — killing 11 teens per day — overtaking drunk driving deaths among teens, according to a recent study by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Texting is responsible for nearly 25% of all car accidents and 330,000 injuries per year, making drivers 23 times more likely to crash.
Four states don’t ban it at all: Hawaii, Arizona, South Carolina and Montana. A few ban only young drivers: Missouri bans drivers younger than 21; and Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas either ban learner’s permit and provisional license holders, or drivers under 18.
The rest of the country bans texting while driving for all drivers, with fines ranging from $20 in California to $750 in Utah. In Alaska, killing someone while texting and driving is a felony punishable by up to $250,000 in fines and 20 years in prison.
There isn’t a national standard and it’s unlikely there will be one, says John Bowman, a spokesman for the National Motorists Association, a drivers’ rights organization.
“In once sense, it would be helpful if there were a national standard in place since drivers who travel a lot would know what to expect from one state to the next,” Bowman says. “However, the chances of ever putting a national standard in place are pretty slim, since the federal government generally leaves traffic enforcement up to the states.”
Bans have been shown to be ineffective, he says, citing a report by the Highway Loss Data Institute that focused on texting laws in California, Minnesota, Washington and Louisiana, and found that the laws didn’t lower insurance claims related to car accidents, but increased them.
“Rather than focusing more on laws and more enforcement, the NMA would like to see more emphasis put on public education that covers all types of distracted driving,” Bowman says. “This is the kind of initiative that could be rolled out nationwide with many positive safety benefits.”
Walking while using a cellphone is difficult enough, and using one while trying to be aware of all of the other distractions while driving is too difficult for the best multi-taskers, says Steve Dziadik, who owns a driving school in Florida.
“It’s not the obvious that you think of,” Dziadik says of distractions while driving. “Very often it’s many of the things that you do.”
They include looking for stores while driving, having ketchup from a hamburger you’re eating drop in your lap, or turning to talk to a passenger in the back seat — anything that takes a driver’s eyes off the road.
Dziadik says he teaches student drivers how to be aware of their surroundings and to identify everything that can be a problem: a pedestrian at a corner, kids playing basketball, blind spots and everything else on the road.
No text or voice message is as important as driving safely, says Dziadik, who recommends putting a phone on silent mode, pulling to the side of the road to use it, or putting it in the trunk.
“If you can leave your phone home, do it,” he says.

Below is a chart regarding texting while driving laws:

Data provided by DMV.com