Enforcement

PR can fail. Authorities, companies and other organizations can plead with the public to no avail. For example, this case. Governments and not-for-profits harangue citizens to put away cell phones while driving. But, they haven’t. They continue to talk and text (!) while steering vehicles down the road. There is little wonder accidents have increased. The logical solution to this dilemma is enforcement — tickets and steep fines for people caught using phones while driving. It is difficult to do but not impossible. Police are trained to be sensitive to how people drive, and they can spot egregious infractions — people with cell phones to their ear, drivers looking down rather than at the traffic around them with only one (or no) hands on the steering wheel, citizens slow to take off after a light changes because they are distracted by texting. There should be no quarter given for mistakes like these. Distraction is worse than speeding. When automated cars become standard, this will change, but for now PR needs the backing of strict enforcement.