Texting enforcement hard but needed

Daily Herald Editorial Board

Is education sufficient justification for some laws? Or is a means of enforcement a mandatory component? These are among key questions that come to mind after examining Daily Herald Projects and Transportation Writer Marni Pyke’s look over the weekend at the challenges facing police trying to enforce Illinois’ complicated new law against texting and driving.

In her story, Pyke described the challenges and frustrations police confront when trying to enforce the law. They’re not, it’s worth noting, unexpected difficulties. One of the most common worries when the law was debated in 2010 was in how the law would be enforced. How do authorities actually catch a driver in the act of sending a text message or surfing the Web on a smartphone?

The experiences of McHenry County Sheriff’s Sgt. Karen Groves, chronicled by Pyke, emphasized that dilemma. But they also reinforced certain other conclusions, as well. For one thing, during the time that Pyke spent with Groves, texting wasn’t the only source of distraction observed. Countless drivers were using cellphones. One was reading a map while she drove. Another was eating.

Just over a month ago, we reminded you in this space that cellphone use alone accounts for more than a quarter of all accidents in this country — at least 28 percent, to be more precise. And that doesn’t count the map reading, eating, grooming and other activities that take drivers’ attention away from the very dangerous activity of operating a motor vehicle.

Pyke’s story is another reminder of the challenges inherent in monitoring these behaviors and stopping them. As we said in April, Illinois needs a stronger law governing cellphone use by drivers. And, it also needs to find ways to educate drivers of the dangers of all manner of seemingly benign behaviors that can turn deadly when combined with driving the state’s highways.

We’ve touted awareness campaigns before and they’re important. But enforcement efforts like the monitoring Groves was doing also can have an effect, even if, as Groves herself indicated, it is very difficult to get evidence that will stand up in court. For they, too, add incrementally to drivers’ awareness of the problems they could cause.

State Rep. John D’Amico, a Chicago Democrat who has been active in the fight against distracted driving, agrees that the law “needs to be tweaked ... to make it something that’s more enforceable.”

He’s absolutely right. But in the meantime, it’s good that authorities are doing what they can to enforce the existing law. “By making people aware, there’s a certain percentage who will not text and drive because they know it’s against the law,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in Pyke’s report.

Or, in other words, the existing law may not be easily enforceable. But it’s a start.