Texting while driving should be considered a serious offense

19-year-old Nechama Rothenberger leaves court after being charged




















At least the photos indicate Anthony Weiner was not texting while driving.

Then he might have really hurt somebody, as 19-year-old Nechama Rothenberger of Brooklyn allegedly did last September.

Police say she received a text and was attempting to reply while turning left from Avenue P onto E. 17th St. Her Toyota struck a scooter driven by restaurant deliveryman Tian Sheng Lin.

Lin died from his injuries. He was 53 and a father of three.

At present, texting while driving is only a secondary offense, meaning police cannot pull you over for that alone.

Gov. Cuomo is pushing the state legislature to make it a primary offense, on a par with driving while using a cell phone.

The problem is that people will no doubt continue texting while driving just as they continue talking on cell phones while driving.

Our cops issued 217,012 summonses last year for driving while using a cell phone, but it remains a far too common sight.

My daughters were nearly killed the other night by an off-duty firefighter who was in an obviously heated conversation on his cell phone while making a speedy right turn in an SUV with 9/11 memorial stickers on the back.

One of the girls he nearly ran over was wearing a 9/11 memorial bracelet for a firefighter who was close to the family.

All told, DWD, or driving while distracted by cell phone chats or texting, accounts for some 25,000 of more than 125,000 car accidents in the city each year.

DWD in the city is estimated to result in more than 60 deaths annually, along with more than 600 injuries classified as "life altering."

Summonses are clearly not an adequate deterrent. What might work is a penalty that has been used in the city schools with considerably less justification.

Confiscate the phone.

And, unlike in the schools, do not give it back.

Teenagers in particular would be struck with horror at the prospect of losing not just a phone, but all its contacts, photos, videos, music and apps.

OMG!

At present, the police can confiscate your car if you are repeatedly caught driving while intoxicated. The hitch there is that the same delusion that convinces drunks they are fine to drive also convinces them they will do nothing to get caught.

Unless a driver is also inebriated, he or she will understand they are running a risk when they contemplate DWD.

IMHO, the deterrent would be particularly effective with repeat offenders, for the driver will know too well the trauma of being suddenly phoneless and contactless in the age of social media.

Even if you are able to find a working pay phone, you can't send or receive texts with it. You might as well try to tweet with a brick.

The confiscated phones could be auctioned by the NYPD property clerk, just like the ones the cops now end up with for various reasons.

Phones seized by the NYPD were being auctioned on the site propertyroom.com yesterday. They ranged from old flip artifacts going for $1 to a 3G iPhone that had 37 offers reaching $220, with eight hours of bidding still to come.

If the sales averaged even $50, that could generate $10 million in this time of cutbacks.

We could give the money to the schools.

LOL!