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As of today, July 1, you can be pulled over for texting while driving in Virginia — formerly a secondary offense. As Alexandria PD’s Lt. Mark Bergin told ABC 7 News:
“We don’t want to have to follow somebody for three blocks while they’re doing something we know is dangerous before we can stop them, we can stop them right there,”
Dangerous indeed: “…the risk of a vehicle crash can be up to 23 times higher when the driver is texting,” according to the seminal Virginia Tech study.
Driving at the legal limit for alcohol presents only 11 times risk. How long will it take before texting, or using a phone at all while driving, is seen in the same light?
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