Citing a report from the National Safety Council, NJ lawmaker Pamela Lampitt wants to create and enforce road safety in the state.

Although there is absolutely no doubt that using your phone while commuting can be quite dangerous, even if you are walking. In fact, cities have even tried creating dedicated lanes for commuters and have even padded lamp posts to prevent fatal collision from distracted pedestrians. They have even tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to pass laws to curb this menace.

All of these efforts have not stopped Pamela Lampitt, a lawmaker from New Jersey from introducing a bill that bans any kind of electronic communication device that needs to be operated by our hands while commuting on the state’s public pathways.

If the bill becomes law, an offender will face the same criminal penalties as that of jaywalking, which includes a $50 fine and a 15 days in the cooler. Lampitt’s reasoning is that a person texting while commuting poses “just as much danger” as a jaywalker, since the person may unwittingly bump into a car while he is busy catching up with friends and associates on his handheld device.

To support her bill, Lampitt has cited a report from the National Safety Council which has documented 11,101 incidents spread over a period of 10 years. Many of these include serious injuries.

However, turning the bill into law may prove quite challenging since police officers frequently have higher priorities than stopping commuters in their tracks while being on their WhatsApp session. Furthermore, even if the bill were to become law, enforcing the legislation could become a problem unless of course an incident is created.

Instead, it would be easier to create a series of advertisements and awareness campaigns to encourage people to stay focused on their commute than to haul the offenders to court.