The state law banning hand-held cell phone use while driving doesn’t extend to text messaging, something Councilman David Weprin, father of 16-year-old twin girls, would like to change fast. Motivated by last summer’s fatal accident in the Finger Lakes region, in which five girls in a sport utility vehicle died when the text-messaging teenage driver swerved into oncoming traffic, Weprin will introduce a measure today that would ban the sending or reading of text messages......

A maximum $100 fine doesn't seem to be stemming the rising tide of self-absorbed assholes who drive cars while blathering on their cell phones. Though a state law prohibits the use of a hand-held mobile phone while operating a motor vehicle, the number of violations has jumped fivefold in New York City since 2002, according to amNY. Last year almost 200,000 violations were reported....

A state senator from Long Island is proposing that texting on one's mobile phone while driving should be illegal. It's already against the law to talk on a phone while one is driving. Studies have shown that that is about as distracting as being drunk behind the wheel. One can only imagine how distracting texting--which involves digital manipulation and reading, versus simply talking--could be in comparison. State senator Carl Marcellino is the legislator who intends......