A law set to take effect at the end of the month in Massachusetts has state officials working on a public relations campaign to inform the public of the ban on sending text messages while behind the wheel. The efforts have targeted mass transit lines, highway billboards, and many others, according to the Boston Globe.
Governor Deval Patrick signed the ban on text messaging in July. The law makes Massachusetts the 30th state in the country to ban texting while driving, and other provisions will make it the 28th state to ban all cellphone use by drivers under a certain age, the Globe reports.
However, some public safety officials told the newspaper that the ban could prove difficult to enforce. “Unless the person is holding the cellphone up at the steering wheel and through the window, and the officer is right next to them and they see them hitting the keys, it’s going to be very hard for us to do that,” said A. Wayne Sampson, the executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.
Regardless of any potential difficulties with the ban – which would provide for a fine of $35 for first-time offenders – safety advocates say discouraging cell phone use behind the wheel is a paramount concern in the fight to keep the country’s roads as safe as possible. The Globe’s report notes that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s second annual Distracted Driving Summit kicked off this week in Washington, D.C., and that there is a large and still-growing body of scientific evidence to support the idea that distracted driving is a critically important public safety issue.