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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2019 - 2020
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 10, 2020 03:54 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Brett R. Miller |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Designating April 27, 2019 as Don’t Text and Drive Day in Pennsylvania |
| In the near future, I plan to re-introduce a resolution to designate April 27, 2020 as Don’t Text and Drive Day in Pennsylvania. Texting, as a means of communication, is nearly universal and has become completely intertwined with our daily lives. While texting is a useful method of communicating, many people continue to text even while they are driving. This has resulted in far too many accidents, injuries, and deaths due to motorists being distracted while driving. Sadly, the number of these tragic incidents continues to grow with each passing year. Research clearly shows that texting while driving dramatically increases the risk of crashes. In fact, the latest available data indicates that 23 percent of all car crashes, or 1.6 million out of 6.73 million nationwide, were the result of the operator being distracted due to texting/manipulating a phone while driving. And, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s PA Crash Facts & Statistics booklet, between the years 2012 and 2018 a total of 103,716 crashes in Pennsylvania alone involved distracted driving, 404 of which resulted in fatalities. Many of these accidents were related to texting and driving. Since texting while driving is occurring so frequently, it poses a significant risk to drivers, passengers and all individuals sharing the roadways in Pennsylvania. The General Assembly has passed several pieces of legislation in an attempt to prevent people from texting while driving. While these attempts have been helpful, we must do more. As was the case last year, designating April 27, 2020 as Don't Text and Drive Day in Pennsylvania is an appeal to individuals, government agencies, business leaders, hospitals, schools and public and private institutions within this Commonwealth to promote awareness of the dangers of texting while driving and to support programs and policies that reduce the incidence of texting while driving in this Commonwealth and nationwide. Please join me in designating April 27, 2020 as Don’t Text and Drive Day in Pennsylvania as we continue to work to make our roadways safer by reducing the number of preventable accidents caused by texting while driving. |
Introduced as HR797