Texting and the Law

As of November 2009, texting while driving was illegal in 18 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to that, more individual cities have passed laws that ban texting or talking on cell phones while driving in their communities. In 21 states, they ban all cell phone use by all new drivers.

In September 2009, the Obama administration held the Distracting Driving Summit. In the opening of the summit, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, "I want to remind everyone that we cannot rely on legal action alone, becasue in reality, you can't legislate behavior... there aren't enough police on patrol to catch everyone who's breaking the law. Taking personal responsibility for our actions is key t o all of this." On the last day of the summit, President Obama signed an executive order that banned texting while driving for all government employees.