Death. Taxes. Curbs on drivers texting.

Add the last to life’s inevitabilities, because the times they are a-changing. Thirty states now ban texting while driving, and more technology is arising to take that foolish distracted driving habit out of drivers’ hands.

The latest, reported by USA Today, is software designed to stop texting, emailing or web-browsing via wireless devices while a car is in motion. It’s being developed by an Irving, TX company called . and a Georgia company called Manage Mobility.

Their technology is being offered to government agencies and corporations, which are trying to  squelch the texting tide that’s causing thousands of traffic accident fatalities and injuries and billions of dollars in losses.

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The long Memorial Day weekend ahead is sure to bring car accident misery to Texas roads. But it’s also sure to bring more enforcement of our roadway laws. That’s because Texas Department of Public Safety officers will be out in force. While you play, they will work.

Last year, DPS officers issued more than 8,500 speeding tickets on Memorial Day weekend. They also wrote out 1,937 tickets for failing to wear seat belts and 521 for failing to provide proper child restraints. They also arrested 622 people for drunk driving.

Those kinds of violations again will be targeted for this long weekend, the DPS promises.

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If your teen sons or daughters have a texting habit, and that extends to when they’re driving, they have a significantly higher chance of drying in a car crash. That’s the report of the Texas Transportation Institute, via data provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The report reveals a study showing that nighttime fatal crashes are increasing at a faster rate for young age groups. That spike is being attributed not just to more night trips by teen drivers, but to teens texting while driving at night.

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Kentucky and Nebraska recently became the 22nd and 23rd states to ban texting while driving, and such laws are pending in most other states. But they don’t include Texas. So soon Texas will be in a minority, with no driving safety law making it illegal to send and read text messages at the wheel of a vehicle.

Such laws are vital because too many Americans aren’t using common sense while operating a motor vehicle. Their distracted driving car crash accidents are slaughtering Americans, with 6,000 traffic fatalities yearly and more than half a million injuries, many of them serious.

Were those texts or calls worth such a price?

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The Houston Chronicle‘s new study of Houston area traffic accidents ended with this assessment by the Texas Transportation Institute: As drivers in the state’s largest city, with 83 million miles traveled daily, our “margin of error is extremely small.”

You could be doing everything right — wearing your seat belt, signaling when you change lines, obeying the speed limit, setting aside your cell phone — and still have a fatal car accident. That’s because it only takes a moment’s inattention or a single mistake –by you or another driver — to cause a car wreck or traffic tragedy.

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Driving deaths overall are down in America, but could be much lower without one thing: distracted drivers who call or text at the wheel. A new report by the U.S. Department of Transportation reveals the United States had 33,963 traffic fatalities in 2009, a drop of 8.9 per cent from 2008. With driving deaths declining for 15 consecutive quarters, this also was the lowest level since 1954.

But imagine how much better it could be without the onslaught of cell phone addiction. Millions of Americans drive with one hand on the wheel — at best — while calling and texting with the other. And when only a moment’s inattention can cause a lifetime of misery, these driving distractions are among the biggest threats on our roads today.

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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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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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