There are at least 46 states with laws that ban texting while driving and 14 that ban all hand-held devices, but some safety advocates feel more must be done to enforce the laws.

In Pennsylvania, drivers are prohibited from using an Interactive Wireless Communication Device to send, read or write a text-based communication while his or her vehicle is in motion.Last November Gov. Tom Wolf signed "Daniel's Law," which enhances the penalties for an accident caused by texting while driving and resulting in serious bodily injury or death.The law is named for Daniel Gallatin, a father, grandfather and military veteran who was killed in May 2013 when his motorcycle was struck from behind. Police said the 43-year-old SUV driver, Laura Gargiulo, was distracted by text messages when the accident occurred.The distracted driver issue is especially important to motorcyclists, who have a much greater risk of suffering a nonfatal injury.One person now on the front lines of the fight for better enforcement is Ben Lieberman, who wanted to find out what may have caused the head-on collision that killed his 19-year-old son Evan near New York City in 2011.After a lawsuit and six months in court, Lieberman finally learned through cellphone records that the driver of the car that collided with his son's vehicle had been texting behind the wheel.Lieberman learned from that experience how difficult the laws are to enforce, even calling New York's system "a joke."He co-founded an advocacy group that has been working with a company on the development of a device able to determine whether a driver was illegally using a phone in the moments before a crash.Similar to the Breathalyzer, the "textalyzer" could be an important tool used by police officers. After being plugged into a person's phone for about a minute, it will indicate whether a motorist was using the device for things like texting, emailing or surfing the web.Last week, New York's Traffic Safety Committee began to study the technology and the constitutional and legal issues associated with its implementation.This technology to aid law enforcement should be applauded. According to a AAA poll, 94 percent of teen drivers acknowledge the dangers of texting and driving, but 35 percent admitted to doing it anyway.There are about 1.6 million crashes in the U.S. every year involving cellphone use, of which 500,000 cause injuries and 6,000 cause fatalities.With an average of 11 deaths every day, texting while driving is now the top cause of death among teenagers.Battle lines are already drawn over privacy. Supporters of the technology say the officer would not be able to access personal information on the phone.Opponents such as digital privacy and civil liberties groups, however, say that it's unnecessary because police can already use search warrants to find evidence of a crime on your phone.Pennsylvania has a good slogan to address distracted driving - " 'Just Drive' - Distractions can wait."The message we saw on one church sign had a deeper message that placed the textalyzer debate on a higher plane:"Honk if you love Jesus. Text while driving if you want to meet him."By Jim Zbick |

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