EDITORIAL: Distracted driving

According to AAA estimates, almost 50 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles from home during this Thanksgiving holiday — and 89 percent of those will choose driving over other modes of transportation.

And if all those drivers hope to reach their destinations safely, let’s hope they put down the smartphones when they’re behind the wheel. Doing otherwise is to court tragedy.

Traffic deaths are up across the country — and it’s hard not to surmise that our ubiquitous electronic devices are the culprits.

The unfortunate trend began in 2015. After almost four decades of declining fatalities, the nation last year experienced its largest annual percentage increase in highway deaths in 50 years, The New York Times reported last week. The carnage hasn’t slowed. During the first six months of 2016, U.S. highway fatalities jumped 10.4 percent — to 17,775 — from the same time in 2015.

Nevada has also experienced an increase, albeit not as dramatic. Through Nov. 7, 272 people had died in the state this year as the result of traffic accidents, up from 265 over the same period a year earlier.

“The incredible connectivity enabled by technology has resulted in a very dangerous environment behind the wheel,” Deborah Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council, told Consumer Affairs.

It is against the law in Nevada to manually talk or text on a cell phone while driving. But enforcement seems lax — the weaving driver texting on his cell phone is now as common on the road as the inconsiderate tailgater.

“The use of phones to the ear is decreasing somewhat, but drivers are more and more likely to do texting and social media and other apps. That is even more dangerous,” a safety expert told the Chicago Tribune earlier this year.

In response to the rising death toll, the Obama administration might push for a number of reforms, including tougher seat belt laws, the Times reported. Other activists have proposed rolling back speed limits, particularly in the West.

But focusing on speed limits and seat belts will do nothing to discourage the use of electronic communication while driving. Fatalities fell for years despite higher interstate speed limits. In addition, the rate of seat belt usage in most states is about as high as it’s ever been.

Continued advances in automobile technology may offer some long-term hope, but until drivers realize the deadly risks of paying more attention to their devices than to the road, we will see more men, women and children killed on our highways as the result of these distractions.