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Transportation Officials Seek To Educated Drivers On Texting Dangers


While the Texas legislature considers at least half a dozen bills that would ban texting while driving, state transportation officials are offering the governor's preferred option -- educating the drivers.

Thousands involved in the Texas transportation industry are in Austin this week learning how to make our roads safer.

"At the (Texas) department of transportation we take it very seriously. Those 3,362 people who lost their lives in 2012, some of those were caused by distracted drivers and we want to make sure we're doing everything possible to keep that from happening again," says Joe Barton, an attendee at the TxDOT conference.

Approximately 28 percent of the fatal accidents that occur in Texas are caused by distracted drivers. And TxDOT says it's working to educate drivers that they are often the ones putting themselves in danger.

"The driver has the choice to either pay attention to the roadway in front of them, keep their hands on the wheel, not be distracted and by doing that they cannot only save their life but the lives of loved ones and people they don't even know. And it is 100 percent preventable," Barton says.

A technological solution could be on the streets soon -- Google is showing off its self-driving car at the transportation forum. Google believes it will be self-driving nationwide in as little as three to five years, freeing up drivers to text as much as they want. But until then, be careful out there.

By Fred Cantu