A few years back, a Florida man was slapped with a $48,000 fine by the Federal Communications Commission for using an illegal signal jammer while driving. His reason was to prevent nearby drivers from using their cellphones. I can understand his frustration, and I’m sure you can too.

Even though it is illegal to use a cellphone while driving in California and several other states, many drivers still do it. It’s a thoughtless and dangerous act that endangers not just the driver but also those around them. It’s not surprising to encounter people talking or texting while driving every day.

The use of a cellphone while driving can be distracting, causing drivers to take their eyes off the road or their hands off the wheel, leading to accidents. The consequences of such accidents can be devastating, costing lives, and causing injury and property damage.

While on the road, we need to prioritize safety and exercise caution. Texts, calls, and notifications can wait until the end of our journey. It’s not worth risking the lives of others and ourselves for a few seconds of distraction. So let’s put down our phones and focus on the road ahead.

That’s why I’m calling on the auto industry to install signal-jamming technology in steering wheels so drivers (but not passengers) are unable to give in to the temptation of playing with their gadgets while piloting 3,000 pounds of steel at speeds topping 60 miles an hour.

Admittedly, the matter is complicated.

“If it’s an option for parents to get their kids off on the right footing and develop safe driving habits, that could be a real safety benefit,” said Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, a Sacramento-based advocacy group.

“But if it’s envisioned as a way to modify the behavior of all drivers, it seems unlikely that those who are the worst offenders in terms of using their phones would be inclined to purchase that option,” she told me.

And if such technology was mandatory, Shahan observed, “what about being able to reach 911 in an emergency where it’s not safe to pull off the road, or to use a phone to navigate or get directions?”

These are big questions. But we’re facing a big problem.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 37,133 people died last year in motor vehicle crashes, and more than 3,000 of those deaths involved distracted drivers. Thousands more people are injured annually by drivers who take their eyes off the road.

I reached out to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry group, to get a sense of where carmakers stand. Bryan Goodman, a spokesman for the organization, said automakers take the matter seriously.

“We can all agree that hands on the wheel and eyes on the road continue to be critical to safe driving,” he said, adding that cellphones “were never designed to be used while driving.”

But there’s only so much the industry can do, Goodman insisted. He emailed me a link to an FCC page addressing the issue.

It says that “federal law prohibits the operation, marketing or sale of any type of jamming equipment, including devices that interfere with cellular and Personal Communication Services (PCS), police radar, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and wireless networking services (Wi-Fi).”

The FCC states in no uncertain terms that “these devices pose serious risks to critical public safety communications, and can prevent you and others from making 911 and other emergency calls. Jammers can also interfere with law enforcement communications.”

“Jamming devices create serious safety risks,” P. Michele Ellison, chief of the agency’s Enforcement Bureau, says in a statement on the web page. “In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be intensifying our efforts through partnerships with law enforcement agencies to crack down on those who continue to violate the law.”

There it is.

The FCC, however, is wrong.

The agency is living in a world where low-power signal jammers might have a range of about 30 feet, while more advanced gear could block all transmissions within the size of a football field. These obviously raise public-safety questions.

But what if small-scale jamming technology could be installed in a steering wheel with a range of just inches — not enough to affect surrounding vehicles, or even other occupants of the car, but sufficient to keep drivers from being stupid?

What if that technology could be flexible enough to not interfere with medical devices such as pacemakers or insulin pumps? Or with streaming-music services?

What if, most importantly, it didn’t mess with law enforcement or emergency calls?

“It could be done,” said Todd Humphreys, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. “Properly calibrated, the jamming would be enough to overpower the driver’s phone near the steering wheel but not quite enough to overpower passengers’ phones.”

He said the jammer could use algorithms to adjust its output relative to changes in cell signal strength as a vehicle moves, so the jamming field remained consistent.

However, there’s always the human factor.

Humphreys noted, correctly, that some knuckle-dragging drivers (my words, not his) would be tempted to skirt the jamming field by holding their phone at arm’s length or leaning way back in their seat.

“This might lead to a situation that’s even more dangerous than the one we’re trying to prevent,” he said.

T. Charles Clancy, executive director of the Hume Center for National Security and Technology at Virginia Tech, had the same thought.

“If you’re texting and driving now, you’ll use whatever wingspan you have to get around the jamming technology,” he said.

The trick, said A. Lee Swindlehurst, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at UC Irvine, is “to find a sweet spot where only the driver’s device is jammed,” regardless of where he or she holds their phone.

This is technically feasible, he said, “but it would be a challenging design.”

There are alternative solutions to the issue of distracted driving caused by cellphone usage.

Instead of using jamming technology, cellphones can be equipped with sensors and cameras that detect motion, or rapid eye movements while driving, and prevent texting.

Another potential solution is to develop jamming technology that blocks incoming signals but still allows outbound calls in emergency situations.

The key is for federal authorities to be open to change and explore these options. However, the FCC has not responded to attempts to engage on this issue.

A Florida man who was caught jamming people’s cellphones on the freeway received a hefty fine and was charged with using an illegal device.

Despite his chutzpah, the greater concern is the number of lives lost due to distracted driving. More people die from this than the number killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, making it an urgent public-safety threat that requires action.

Doing nothing is not an option.