Local law enforcement officials agree that texting on a cell phone while driving can have deadly consequences.

On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Senate took up the issue. It approved a bill 27-5 that would ban people from sending texts while driving. The Assembly soon will vote on the bill that includes penalties of between $20 and $400.

But some worry a fine isn’t enough to keep motorists’ eyes on the road and their minds on their safety and the safety of their passengers.

Police officers are relying on early education, inattentive driving citations and reminders of past fatalities to help get the message across that texting while driving is dangerous.

Sometimes officers have to pull out all the stops to get through to teens who believe they are invincible.

In the driver’s education courses at Fond du Lac High School and Ries Driving School, Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Department officers present photos from past fatal accidents involving teens to impart the safety message, said Capt. Dean Will.

“Some of the pictures (from prior crashes) are used to try to get it across to kids that this is what can happen,” Will said. “Sometimes the only way you can get things across is by the graphic nature of it.”

One of the newest tools available to officers is a video made in Wales that has taken off on the Web site YouTube. It is a short film created to show the deadly outcome of |texting while driving.

In what was created as a public service announcement, three teenage girls are checking a cell phone when their vehicle swerves and strikes another car head-on. The video shows the girls as they are cut by flying glass, a girl who is not wearing a seat belt as she breaks a window with her head, a little girl attempting to wake up her dead or unconscious parents, and even a baby not responding to paramedics.

Sgt. Renee Schuster has shown students the video this week.

“(The video is) exactly how it is,” she said. “… It’s a dramatization, but it is very realistic. They will not show it in its entirety in the United States (because of its graphic nature). I don’t hold anything back. This is reality.”

Schuster also talks about 2007 — a year that saw 20 traffic deaths on Fond du Lac County roads. She shows students photos from a crash in April that year that killed three high school students.

Eyes off the road

Drivers turning their attention away from the road are not uncommon, said Wisconsin State Patrol Lt. Nick Scorcio.

Officers have seen drivers reading books and newspapers, eating cheeseburgers and applying makeup while driving at speeds more than 55 mph, said Scorcio.

Even a driver in the middle of town obeying a 25 mph speed limit can claim a life with inattentive driving, he said.

“You could still have a kid on a bicycle ride out in front of you, or a child could chase a ball that has rolled into your path or someone could back (a car) into your path,” Scorcio said. “You still may need to take evasive action. Even at a lower speed, you can still kill somebody.

“Whether you’re in town or on the freeway, it’s these moments of inattentiveness when a lot of the bad things happen,” he continued. “Inattentive driving is probably more of a factor (in accidents) than we can quantify.”

Fond du Lac County Sheriff Mick Fink said drivers can be issued inattentive driving citations after an accident. And police do have ways to determine if a cell phone was a factor in a serious accident.

“It’s become standard operating procedure in serious crashes for us to look at the cell phone records to see if a person was on the phone talking or texting prior to the crash,” Fink said.

Fink noted no text message is worth risking someone’s life.

“I’m failing to find, right now off the top of my head, a legitimate reason to be texting while driving a motor vehicle,” Fink said. “What can be so important that you can’t pull over?”