Politics & Government

Do You Want Tougher Laws For Texting While Driving?

New York State to impose stricter penalties.

Written by Lon Cohen.

On his website on Tuesday, State Sen. Phil Boyle, R, announced that new, tougher penalties for people who are caught texting while driving. On Wednesday, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) increased the number of license penalty points for texting-while-driving and cell-phone related convictions from three points to five points. Cuomo also asked New York State Police to increase enforcement meaning more checkpoints and trooper patrols during the summer.

Young and new drivers should also beware. Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed legislation to make new, tougher penalties for those drivers convicted of texting-while-driving.

Two years ago, a new State law strengthened enforcement of texting-while-driving violations that resulted in a 234 percent increase in tickets issued for texting while driving from 2011 to 2012, according to Sen. Boyle's announcement.

He also referred to statistics about cellphone use while driving saying that texting and phone use is a growing while alcohol-related driving has gone down:

  • From 2005 to 2011, there was a 143 percent increase in cell phone-related crashes versus about an 18 percent decrease in alcohol-related crashes. (NYS)
  • In 2011, there were 25,165 crashes that involved distracted driving compared to 4,628 caused by alcohol-related driving. (NYS)
  • More than 40 of teenage drivers admitted to regularly texting while driving, according to research released at a recent poster session of the Pediatric Academic Societies.
  • With these statistics, it seems clear that distracted driving is becoming a big problem in New York.
We want to know, are you guilty of texting or talking on a cell phone while driving? Is it ever OK to text while driving a car? Should laws be passed to increase penalties against people who text or talk on the phone while driving? Tell us in the comments below.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here