The consequences of causing a traffic accident can be terrible. Yet many people increase their risk of causing an accident by violating traffic rules, laws and ordinances and ignoring common sense.

Do not underestimate the life-changing (or ending) trauma — emotional, physical or financial — that can result from a traffic accident — even on city streets.

The Bismarck Police Department conducted a “texting sting” two days recently. The department issued 31 citations for texting and driving. It’s against the law because distracted driving can interfere with a driver’s awareness of the road. The state passed the ban on texting and driving in 2011, about a year after the city of Bismarck adopted a ban on the dangerous practice.

Most drivers have watched a car ahead of them wander in and out of its lane while the driver texts. It’s frightening. You don’t actually know if the driver is texting, intoxicated or having some kind of seizure. The result is the same: an accident waiting to happen.

It makes defensive driving a necessity.

Like the Bismarck police sting for texting drivers, most departments do major traffic events, collecting DUI citations to drive home the need to drive sober. Some people would like you to believe this is entrapment or is somehow unfair. Not true. No one’s privacy is being violated. No one’s rights are being run over. .

There should be more “texting stings,” and more stops for potential drunken driving by police and other law enforcement agencies.

— The Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune