dire issue
日本でもたびたび話題になる「ながらスマホ」が、アメリカのニューヨークでも社会問題となっています。
New York Today: Texting Turns Dangerous
By ALEXANDRA S. LEVINE APRIL 26, 2016
Good morning on this turbulent Tuesday.
April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
Nationwide, distracted drivers killed more than 3,000 people and wounded another 431,000 in 2014.
Since 2011, we New Yorkers have gotten better about not talking on our cellphones behind the wheel, but texting has become a more dire issue.
Very dire.
The numbers are scary.
According to a statement recently released by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, roughly 9,000 texting tickets were issued by state and local law enforcement in 2011.
But by 2015, that number increased to almost 85,000.
The State of New York is taking this problem seriously: Over the past five years, Mr. Cuomo has increased the texting-while-driving infraction from two points to five.
He also signed a law that promised a four-month license suspension for young or inexperienced drivers convicted of texting while driving, followed by a possible revocation for a year.
And if your taxi driver is using a cellphone while driving, complain away.
Those of us who don’t drive are not off the hook either; pedestrians who text in a crosswalk are out in droves, too, and it has become a public safety concern.
This week, we spent rush hour hanging out at Lafayette and East Houston Streets, at the heavily trafficked intersection near the gas station that just closed.
In just one hour, we counted 594 passers-by walking, like zombies, chins down and eyes glued to their glowing phone screens.
(It is not a good look; these smartphone zombies were recently nicknamed “smombies” in Germany.)
So if you see something, say something.
今回取り上げる表現は、”dire issue”です。”dire”を『ウィズダム英和辞典』（第３版、三省堂）で調べたところ、「恐ろしいほどの、ひどい、悲惨な〈状況・結果など〉；差し迫った、極度の〈必要・貧困・危険など〉」という意味が載っていました。
Dictionary.comには、１.“causing or involving great fear or suffering; dreadful; terrible”２.”indicating trouble, disaster, misfortune, or the like”と定義されていました。
記事の中の、“texting has become a more dire issue.”は、「ながらスマホが深刻化している。」と解釈できると思います。
過去にも本ブログで取り上げられておりますので、そちらもご覧ください。（Blue Sky）
