I’ve been blogging about the danger of text messaging while driving for quite a long time (More Proof that Text  Messaging Impairs Drivers; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Personal Injury Lawyer New Years Recap; Philadelphia Pennsylvania car and truck accidents caused by cell phones and text messaging while driving under new scrutiny; Philadelphia Car and Truck Accident Lawyer Welcomes New Cell Phone Ban ) .

So it should come as no surprise that I am thrilled to see that the latest studies of the safety issues posed by drivers sending and reading text messages while driving will be the basis for new laws proposed in the U.S. Senate. New York Senator Charles Schumer and others have proposed legislation which will try to use federal highway funding as the impetus to force states to adopt text message bans.

Those of you of my generation will recall that in the late 1970s, after years of lobbying by a very effective group named Mothers Against Drunk Driving (”MADD”), the US government tied federal highway funding to increases in the legal drinking age from 18 to 21. Senator Schumer’s proposal would follow the same model to leverage the states’ need for federal highway funds in order to force them to pass strong safety laws that would ban text messaging while driving.

Frankly, I’d love to see this broadened to include talking on cell phones, but when it comes to positive safety legislation, I recognize that the political process is not a fast process. I’ll take whatever we can get if it makes our roads safer!

Some critics have suggested that this law would be impossible to enforce. From my perspective as a lawyer who scrutinizes accidents after the fact, I can assure you that a driver’s cell phone records – and those of all of the passengers (since teen drivers are pretty smart about using a friend’s phone to avoid detection by their parents) – tell a powerful story about exactly who and what was being texted in the critical moments before an accident. As I have lectured to groups of new drivers, they are shocked to hear that I will subpoena the cell records of everyone in the car to learn if any texting was going on. Sooner or later, the truth comes out – regardless of what the nay-sayers think.

I’ll try to track the progress of this legislation in this blog. Cudos to Mr. Schumer and his colleagues!