Our opinion: The problem of distracted driving continues to grow. Please put the phone away when you drive.

This editorial represents the consensus opinion of The Daily Herald Editorial Board.

Two weeks ago, Chicago played host to the largest gathering of roadway safety professionals in the country for the 40th annual Lifesavers Nation Conference on Highway Safety Priorities.

Some 2,000 federal and state officials, public health advocates, law enforcement people and insurance industry leaders met to talk about one thing: how to educate the public on safe driving habits and to reduce the number of fatalities to zero.

A lofty goal, to be sure. The least we can do is prevent the grisly actual number of highway deaths from growing each year.

Things have never been worse.

Last year more than 36,000 people died on roads in the United States. That's one fatality every 15 minutes.

That takes into account intoxicated driving, speeding, running red lights and stop signs and distracted driving.

Given that April is Distracted Driver Awareness Month in Illinois, we'll focus on that aspect of the problem today.

The Kane County Sheriff's Office is one of more than 200 police agencies around the state that will be reminding motorists to "Drop It and Drive."

Sheriff Ron Hain said you can expect to see extra patrol cars and enforcement areas all over the place where deputies and officers will be looking for people paying attention to their phones instead of where they're going or who might be around them.

We hope his deputies and other police officers nail a lot of offending drivers with hefty fines.

Why? Because telling people to mute their phones, put them in a glove box, throw them in the back seat or just turn them off when they're driving simply is not working.

Better you're shocked into mending your ways by having to suffer the embarrassment and cost of getting caught than finally seeing the light once you lose a loved one in a distracted driving crash or kill someone yourself.

We have seen this in our own lives. There is a good chance that in the past 30 years that we've made cellphones an integral part of our existence that you know of someone who's been injured or died in a distracted driving crash, too.

There is no sense in beating around the bush here. Texting, yacking or playing Wordle on your phone is not a benign activity when you're also operating a two-ton vehicle.

It's a disaster waiting to happen.

"Texting while driving puts everyone on the road at risk by distracting a driver visually, manually and cognitively," Hain said. "We're working to increase awareness of these dangers and encourage all motorists to give driving their full attention."

So just drop the phone already and drive.