According to auto club AAA, texting while driving is getting worse on California’s roads.

In their most recent study, AAA compared 7 locations in Southern California before and after the law went into effect.  Of the 4,000 Orange County cars sampled, it was found that 2.7% of all drivers are texting while driving.  That’s almost twice the number from January 2009.  Studies showed shortly after the law was enacted, texting dropped from 1.4 percent to just 0.5 percent of drivers.  However, by April 2010, texting was climbing back up to 1.1 percent of all drivers.

Survey showed that young women are more likely to exchange text messages while driving.  Young men tend to play around with their smart phone or MP3 player while driving.

Texting while driving has been illegal in California since January 2009.  Violators face a $20 fine for a first offense, and a $50 fine for subsequent offenses.

Source: 10 News, September 16, 2010; KPCC, September 15, 2010

Related posts:

1. Texting while driving on the rise in California
2. Young drivers’ texting more than doubles the risk of crash
3. California wants to toughen up on texting driver and cyclists
4. AAA wants to ban texting while driving by 2013