Half of Moms SMS While Driving Their Kids

A recent report showed adults are just as likely as teens to text message while driving. That may not be all that surprising, but a new report is: it shows that half of mothers text message while driving.

The survey, conducted by by BOHAN Advertising for its WhyMomsRule.com blog, show that among mothers with text messaging service on their cell phones, 49 percent admit to reading or writing text messages while driving. Not just that, the moms did so with their kids in the car.


The survey shows what's wrong with drivers: lack of common sense. Without legislation, or in fact, even with legislation, people think it's OK to text while driving. While statistics actually have shown disappointing results in terms of accident reduction in states which have instituted such laws, they have correlated that data with compliance. Many of these states (fro example, California, $20) have fines so low that people ignore them.

If authorities want compliance, they need to raise fines to the point that people will pay attention. It is sad to see in California, for example, that littering fines are so much higher.

42001.7. (a) Every person convicted of a violation of Section 23111 or 23112, or subdivision (a) of Section 23113, shall be punished by a mandatory fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) upon a first conviction, by a mandatory fine of not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) upon a second conviction, and by a mandatory fine of not less than seven hundred fifty dollars ($750) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) upon a third or subsequent conviction.

The survey was conducted among 585 mothers over age 18 with at least two children at home. It was conducted online in late May. The survey has a margin of error of 5 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.