Texting Ban Planned for South Carolina School Bus Drivers

Texting while driving any South Carolina school bus may soon be banned if a proposed bill passes soon. If caught, the driver is subject up to a $100 fine.

The legislation is part of a growing nationwide trend to eliminate dangerous text messaging by drivers of all vehicles.

Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., forbid texting while driving, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association from data obtained from the AAA, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and state highway safety offices.

As more states ban texting while driving, the practice continues to be the focus of research and stand up comedy.

“Text messaging now out numbers cell phone calls three to one, and that’s just while driving,” comedian Jay Leno joked on a show.

But researchers at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute weren’t laughing when they called for an outright ban on texting after releasing a study showing the dangers of cell phone use and distracted driving.

The study claims texting drivers are 23 times more at risk of having a crash or near crash than those paying attention.

Texting — using a cell phone to type and transmit written messages — should be banned in moving vehicles for all drivers, the institute said in its four-year study released in July.

Distractions were a factor in nearly 6,000 traffic fatalities in 2008, up from 5,000 deaths four years earlier, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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