Like a car on freshly-inflated tires, the national momentum to outlaw texting while driving keeps on rolling. Today the U.S. Department of Transportation placed an immediate ban on interstate commercial bus and diesel truck drivers fidgeting with texting gadgets when they should be paying full attention to the road.

After all, they’re getting paid to drive, aren’t they? And, oh yes: If they stop texting, they just might save lives.

In fact, they definitely will, since distracted drivers who text or talk by cell phones kill thousands of Americans each year. So far 20 states have put the brakes on such absurd behavior, with many more states mulling a texting-while-driving ban. And now the DOT has made it illegal — coast to coast — for diesel truck and bus drivers, too.

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Jim S. Adler & Associates has campaigned for years against the cell phone accident dangers of talking or texting while driving. Now many state governments are seeing the light. Nineteen states already ban texting while driving, while 23 more are assessing such legislation. In fact, 34 states are considering proposed bills either to ban or widen bans on the causes of distracted driving.

Why? Because distracted driving kills. It’s that simple. The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that 515,000 persons were injured and 5,870 persons died in traffic accidents in 2008 due to distracted drivers. That’s 16 per cent of all U.S. traffic deaths — enough to help spark creation of FocusDriven, a national non-profit group dedicated to fighting distracted driving.

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Toyota and Lexus cars have a defect, and as a result, Americans are dying. It’s a stuck accelerator pedal, which gets snagged on a floor mat. Braking alone will not stop a car that’s in full and constant acceleration, which is why scores of Americans have been injured or killed.

Last October, four people died near San Diego due to a stuck Toyota accelerator pedal. They were a California Highway Patrol officer and his family of three. Almost four million such vehicles are on America’s roads.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated and initially dismissed many incidents, though hundreds were reported. Yet the accidents, injuries and fatalities mounted. Finally, the NHTSA and Toyota — which also owns Lexus — asked drivers of the defective Toyota and Lexus vehicles to remove their driver’s side floor mat and not replace it. This safety measure pertains to models from 2004-2010.

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American babies are being harmed by strollers which are supposed to protect them. Instead, certain model numbers of Alano, Passage, Travel Systems and Spree Strollers are causing fingertip amputations or cut fingers in infants who put their digits in canopy hinges as strollers open or close.

Graco Children’s Products Inc. of Atlanta, which produces the strollers sold at Target, Wal-Mart and other retailers, this week issued a recall of 1.5 million strollers, all made in China. Other retailers selling them between October 2004 and last December are Kmart, Sears, Fred Meyer, Burlington Coat Factory, AAFES, Navy Exchange, Meijer, Babies R Us and Toys R Us.

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In increasingly urban Texas, bicyclists and pedestrians are increasingly endangered. Yet Gov. Rick Perry last year vetoed a bill — passed overwhelmingly by the Senate and House — which would have offered  more protection to cyclists and walkers on or near our roads.

Now some cities, such as Austin, are enacting the same law on a municipal basis. And San Antonio may get one, too. A city council committee voted unanimously this week to send a “safe passing” ordinance for “vulnerable road uses” to the full council for approval next month.

Why is this vital? Because Texans are dying, and every bit helps. In 2008 alone, 50 Texans on bicycles were killed and 274 suffered incapacitating injuries in car-bicycle accidents. And every year, about 400 Texas pedestrians are killed by vehicles in car-pedestrian accidents.

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The idea seemed good at first: Cities would install “red light cameras” at high-risk intersections, in hopes of slowing down traffic as a deterrent. Such cameras could capture irrefutable evidence that a car ran a red light, while displaying its license number. The drivers then could be ticketed by mail.

The only trouble was, traffic still didn’t tend to slow down until lights turned “yellow,” at which point some drivers began hitting their brakes instead of pressing through, for fear of getting a ticket via a red light camera, while other drivers — speeding and tailgating — hit them from behind.

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A woman in Grapevine, Texas, whose mother was killed by distracted driving has launched a national nonprofit group to fight distracted drivers and comfort their victims. Called FocusDriven, the organization was envisioned at last fall’s Distracted Driving Summit in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

About 6,000 Americans died last year due to distracted drivers, many of whom were texting or calling by cell phone when they caused such tragedies. Longtime Texas personal injury law firm Jim S. Adler & Associates strongly supports measures to curb distracted driving and spare thousands of Americans and their families the wrenching  loss of a distracted driver car accident.

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Shamelessly picking profits over safety, Google and Intel Corporation are pushing computer screens for car dashboards. That’s right: Drivers near you soon will careen into you thanks to such infotainment “progress.”

The computer and Internet industry’s brazen irresponsibility is especially galling given the thousands of Americans who already are killed and maimed by distracted drivers fixated on phones and texts. Add flashy computer screens to the mix and you’ll get far more traffic tragedies.

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Seamen on American waters perform difficult, physically taxing jobs which deserve respect. When they’re injured, such seamen have a special protection known as the Jones Act. Seamen also may seek financial recovery via Workers Compensation, or Workers Comp, but recovery through the Jones Act can be a far better strategy.

Indeed, settlements for injured seamen under the Jones Act can be much larger than sums paid under Workers Comp. Laws on the latter vary from state to state, but largely Workers Comp covers only disability payments, medical costs and lost wages for injured seamen. Often paid through an employer’s Workers Comp insurance policy, such payments are limited and are designed to help a seaman get back on his feet and then return to his job.

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With 19 states and the District of Columbia now making it illegal to text while driving, you wonder when Texas will wise up. So far, only municipalities have passed such laws, the biggest being Austin. And the only state law on the books protects only school children by making it illegal to text or use a cell phone while driving through a school zone.

But does this law truly protect kids? Not exactly. That’s because individual school districts still must pay for signs to be posted in school zones to warn drivers that such behavior is illegal. And if they don’t, the law doesn’t apply.

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