The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recently made big waves about the dangers of distracted driving. The government agency released data saying that 5,500 people died and around 500,000 were injured in 2009 in accidents in which distracted driving was a factor. Likewise, research has surfaced saying that teens still don’t think texting while driving is as dangerous as drunk driving, even though both have been shown to be just as detrimental to a driver’s ability to operate a car or truck.

Still, this new legislation isn’t aimed at curbing teen texting. Instead, the law targets professionals who aren’t giving their full attention to the road while driving. Distracted driving in the commercial field has made headlines recently, including one tragic incident in 2008 in which an Amtrak train engineer, while texting with a teenage locomotive enthusiast, missed a signal and struck another train head-on; the disaster killed 25 people.

Unfortunately, we don’t see law enforcement as the key to changing any type of popular behavior. While issuing tickets may serve as a wake-up call for a handful of drivers, it will ultimately take a renewed sense of personal responsibility for one’s actions -- not to mention a real understanding of the dangers involved -- before the rates of texting while driving take a serious fall. Until the larger public understands the repercussions of taking their eyes off the road for even a second, the rate of accidents in which distracted driving is a factor will continue to climb.