Hagan Highlights Bill Banning Texting While Driving During National Teen Driver Safety Week

Press Release

U.S. Senator Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) today released a YouTube message during National Teen Driver Safety Week highlighting a bill she cosponsored to ban texting while driving.

"Texting drivers are 23 times more likely to crash," Hagan said. "Behind the wheel, it is a deadly distraction," Hagan said. "I am proud North Carolina has taken the necessary steps to ban texting while driving, and I will work with my colleagues to pass this bill and make roads across the nation safer."

In the fourth quarter of 2008, American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month. In July, Hagan cosponsored the Avoiding Life-Endangering and Reckless Texting by Drivers Act ("ALERT Drivers" Act) that will require states to bar texting or emailing while operating a car or truck, or lose federal highway funds. North Carolina, along with 16 other states, have already passed such a law.

Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel have both come out in support of state and federal bans on text messaging while driving, and a companion bill to the ALERT Drivers Act has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

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