A new study released by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) suggests that laws which are aimed at curbing texting while driving not only don’t serve to reduce texting-related accidents, but, counter-intuitively, if anything such laws seem to lead to an increase in, if not accidents, at least the filing of accident-related insurance claims.

Just a couple of months ago the deadly MetroLink train crash, which killed at least 25 people in California, was held to be due to the engineer texting on his cell phone while driving the train. Now a high ranking British official is being charged with the death of another motorist, when the car he was driving – while texting – collided with another, killing the other driver.

The Los Angeles Metrolink train crash tragedy at Chatsworth which killed 25 and injured another 130 is being blamed on the engineer’s text messaging SMS messages with a couple of teenage train enthusiasts, causing him to miss a critical red light. The engineer, Robert Sanchez, was among the 25 killed in the crash.

A new law introduced in New York would allow police to take your cell phone on the spot, and analyze it to determine whether you were on the phone, or texting, or reading email, in the moments leading up to the accident. Dubbed the Textalyzer – or Textalizer – the bill’s proponents say that the concept is not much different than a Breathalyzer, which police use on the spot to see whether someone is over the legal blood alcohol limit while behind the wheel.

General Motors (GM) has announced that many 2015 Chevrolet automobiles will have native, on-board 4G LTE wifi next year. The list of cars that will have onboard wireless hotspots includes the Chevrolet Corvette, Chevy Impala, Malibu, Volt, Equinox, Silverado, Silverado HD, Spark and Spark EV, and in Canada the Chevrolet Trax.

We all know better, but so many think that they have it under control, and can sneak “just this one text message” in while behind the wheel. And you know, you could get away with it. But you might not. That’s the hearbreaking lesson that the parents of Alexander Heit learned this month, when their son fatally crashed his car while sending that one text message. In fact, the crash happened with that last text half-written, waiting to be sent. Now Alexander’s mother, Sharon Heit, has released a photo of that text, in hopes that it will help people realize just how dangerous a practice it is.

Recently some people have begun to question whether SMS is corrupting our language – have the confines of 140 characters forced people to rethink how they speak such that they use the shortcuts borne of texting even in non-SMS – even face-to-face – conversation? The advent of Twitter has surely pushed us ever more towards that linguistic evolution, and anyone over the age of 30 who has ever had someone, of any age, say to their face “OMG” (pronounced “oh em gee”) may well have asked themselves “Is SMS corrupting our language?” (or may have on the spot concluded that SMS is corrupting our language!) But not everyone – including some experts – sees it that way.