Editorial: New texting while driving law steers state in right direction

Illinois drivers know that typing out a text while behind the wheel is against the law. But getting caught - at least for most first-time offenders - simply results in a fine.

Starting next summer, however, motorists caught texting while driving will face tougher penalties. Legislation signed into law last week by Gov. Bruce Rauner makes texting a moving violation, one that goes on a driver's record. And drivers convicted of three moving violations in the span of a year could have their licenses suspended.

The new law goes into effect July 1. 2019. It's an important step in the right direction.

Illinois banned the use of hand-held cellphones while driving in 2014, but the sight of drivers holding their phones to their ears - or tapping away at a text, email or Facebook post - is all too common.

A Daily Herald project published in 2014 found more than 1,000 people breaking Illinois' hands-free driving law between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. on a Thursday in October at 10 major intersections in the suburbs. Nearly two drivers every minute broke the law by texting, scrolling or talking on their cellphones without the benefit of a hands-free device.

Even parents with precious cargo are not immune from the temptation to text and drive. According to a recent study by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, about a third of parents reported reading text messages while driving young children and one in four sent them. Distracted driving, including texting, claimed 3,450 lives in 2016 alone, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and it plays a part in an estimated 25 percent of car crashes reported to police.

State Sen. Cristina Castro, an Elgin Democrat who sponsored the new Illinois legislation in the Senate, told the Daily Herald that penalties under the state's current law did not go far enough.

"If we strengthen this law by making the first offense a moving violation," she said in an article in today's news section, "maybe people will finally put their phone down while driving."

We hope so, but we urge state and local authorities to do more by coupling the new law with aggressive enforcement as well as continued education and public service campaigns.

After all, the consequences of ignoring the law can be far more terrifying - and tragic - than a traffic ticket.