Should texting while driving be banned?

[AggregateDemand]

No.

Is there any evidence to suggest that the rise of smart devices correlates strongly with the number of traffic accidents or traffic deaths?

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1103.pdf

Phones are the new scapegoat.

[AggregateDemand]

Oh my god, just stop.

It's in black and white. No correlation between smart devices and accidents or accidents/VMT. People don't text and drive, or they mitigate the risk.

Young kids cause horrendous crashes while texting. Though the accidents are not more horrendous or frequent than accidents in previous eras, the olds panick and the insurance companies panic. Law enforcement seizes upon an opportunity to raise ticket revenue.

Just another day in the life.

[AggregateDemand]

It's already illegal in all but 6 states, but as others have noted, it's stupid hard to enforce and like a lot of rarely enforced traffic laws it's usually just tact on to a string of them when something horrible happens.

But it should be illegal anyway just to let people know it's wrong to do.

What's wrong with PSA's? They don't generate revenue?