The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed Senate Bill 314 to make sending text messages while driving a violation for all drivers. It will go into effect 120 days after Gov. Tom Corbett signs it.
Pennsylvania is the 35th state to impose a texting-while-driving ban for all drivers. According to the National Safety Council, the new law could save a dozen lives per year in Pennsylvania and prevent 1,200 injuries requiring medical attention.
Jacy Good, a former Pennsylvania resident who survived a horrific distracted driving crash that killed both her parents, applauded the bill. Good has since become an advocate for tougher distracted driving laws. She said the state’s new law will "save lives, reduce injuries and prevent more Pennsylvanians from going through the sort of tragedy to which I was subjected as the result of another driver using a cell phone."
EHS Today spoke to Good about distracted driving and the crash’s impact on her life in a recent podcast, when she said, "Legislation absolutely, positively needs to be in place" regarding distracted driving.
"People need to be punished pretty severely. They need to lose their license, go to jail [and] have the same kinds of punishments that drunk driving now has since it’s been shown that talking on the phone is equally as dangerous as driving drunk," Good added during her podcast interview.