WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) -- State legislatures across the United States are targeting Driving While Texting, drivers attempting to steer while sending e-mail via Blackberry or cell phone.
New Jersey Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, a D-Camden, who has introduced a bill there, told USA Today he was inspired by his 11-year-old daughter. She gave him a talking-to after she caught him checking his BlackBerry while he was at a red light.
"These devices are addictive, and people are not realizing that their behavior is dangerous," Moriarty told the newspaper.
In Washington state, drivers caught texting face tickets and $101 fines. The state adopted a law, the first in the country, in January.
Nine legislatures considered bills this year. Five of the measures, in Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Tennessee, failed to pass, but laws are still in the hopper in New Jersey, New York, Oregon and California.
Critics of the proposed laws say that proponents haven't produced evidence that DWT causes crashes and that laws already on the books cover it, the newspaper said.
