It should be at LEAST as harsh as a DUI.
Definitely loss of driving privileges forever. Ideally a facial tattoo stating “I am a sociopath who doesn’t care about anyone else’s life”.
And 25 or 50 lashes.
The real problem is situational awareness.
A law that punishes a person who is using both hands texting on their phone on a crowded highway at rush hour the same as it punishes someone who reaches over and touches their screen for a second while at a stop light, isn’t really dealing with the issue.
And a law that punishes the second person, while leaving the woman who is putting on her makeup untouched, is simply not applying the same standards.
I bet there are 20-year-olds who text while driving who are more able to respond to an emergency than an 80-year-old with both hands on the wheel and his eyes fixed forward.
This is not to say I don’t want to crack down on idiots who are holding their phones and typing, while their car wanders around the lanes of traffic.