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Texting while driving is already against the law. It is covered by the distracted driving law.
Driving is a skill, most people aren't nearly as good at it as they think they are.
I hold a Commercial drivers license.
I have logged well over 1 million miles on our national roads and highways.
I have an outstanding safety record.
I have spent thousands of hours talking on the phone while driving.
There have been several studies that show drivers are less likely to phase out due to monotony when talking on the phone as opposed to mindlessly holding a steering wheel for 11 hours a day.
I don't need the government to tell me how to do my job or to babysit me.
Did I text while driving? Nah, almost never text. I average less than one text message sent per month.
Texting is easily 100 times more dangerous than talking on the phone because you can talk on the phone with bluetooth and never take you eyes off the road.
I have never seen anyone who could Touch-text without looking at the screen, nor do I think driving with your elbows is acceptable.
If you cause an accident it's trivial to see if you were texting, a simple request to the cell phone company will get you that information.
If you want to impose harsher penalties for it, that's one thing. That only punishes the people responsible for an accident.
The same law that makes it illegal to talk on the phone or text or use almost any electronic device while driving a commercial vehicle has special exemptions for the onboard communications system that dispatch uses to talk to the drivers. Funny damn thing they are functionally just big cell phones that let you send emails back and forth, and transmit real time gps tracking to the company so they can get track of your location and make sure you are doing your job.
While I agree that texting while failing to control your vehicle should be illegal, It is in fact illegal now.
I do not think that adding two or three additional separate laws to make something doubly or trebley illegal makes any sense at all.
The standard is and should be, are you in control of your vehicle at all times?
If yes, leave the driver alone.
If no, there is no need for additional laws to stop what is already illegal.
The obvious answer would be to outlaw cellphones.
I still have a couple of CB radios I can install in my truck.
It's a lot more entertaining and they had to put in special protections in recent laws to allow CB radios to continue to be used in big trucks.
Rather than pass this particular idiotic law that will be used as yet another excuse to pull people over and give them tickets, we could just as easily mandage a law that renders a cellphone incapable of sending and receiving texts while driving. All text capable cell phones now have gps, this means your phone can tell you how fast you are going, you can get an app for most of them.
If your speed exceeds 7mph then messaging would pause. It's a trivial to add function to modern phones, many apps do it now for free.
Instead of making it more illegal which is an oxymoron, have the phone companies render the function unusable.
If you really think there ought to be a law. <One of the most dangerous statements you can make>
Make it a law that works, it's simple, cost effective. It probably won't happen because it will not generate as much revenue as passing out tickets to teens who ignore the law.
Someone will point out that it would inhibit the passengers in a vehicle from texting.
True, but I could care less. Aren't you happy that I'm not the person who decides for you, what you can do.
Driving is a skill, most people aren't nearly as good at it as they think they are.
I hold a Commercial drivers license.
I have logged well over 1 million miles on our national roads and highways.
I have an outstanding safety record.
I have spent thousands of hours talking on the phone while driving.
There have been several studies that show drivers are less likely to phase out due to monotony when talking on the phone as opposed to mindlessly holding a steering wheel for 11 hours a day.
I don't need the government to tell me how to do my job or to babysit me.
Did I text while driving? Nah, almost never text. I average less than one text message sent per month.
Texting is easily 100 times more dangerous than talking on the phone because you can talk on the phone with bluetooth and never take you eyes off the road.
I have never seen anyone who could Touch-text without looking at the screen, nor do I think driving with your elbows is acceptable.
If you cause an accident it's trivial to see if you were texting, a simple request to the cell phone company will get you that information.
If you want to impose harsher penalties for it, that's one thing. That only punishes the people responsible for an accident.
The same law that makes it illegal to talk on the phone or text or use almost any electronic device while driving a commercial vehicle has special exemptions for the onboard communications system that dispatch uses to talk to the drivers. Funny damn thing they are functionally just big cell phones that let you send emails back and forth, and transmit real time gps tracking to the company so they can get track of your location and make sure you are doing your job.
While I agree that texting while failing to control your vehicle should be illegal, It is in fact illegal now.
I do not think that adding two or three additional separate laws to make something doubly or trebley illegal makes any sense at all.
The standard is and should be, are you in control of your vehicle at all times?
If yes, leave the driver alone.
If no, there is no need for additional laws to stop what is already illegal.
The obvious answer would be to outlaw cellphones.
I still have a couple of CB radios I can install in my truck.
It's a lot more entertaining and they had to put in special protections in recent laws to allow CB radios to continue to be used in big trucks.
Rather than pass this particular idiotic law that will be used as yet another excuse to pull people over and give them tickets, we could just as easily mandage a law that renders a cellphone incapable of sending and receiving texts while driving. All text capable cell phones now have gps, this means your phone can tell you how fast you are going, you can get an app for most of them.
If your speed exceeds 7mph then messaging would pause. It's a trivial to add function to modern phones, many apps do it now for free.
Instead of making it more illegal which is an oxymoron, have the phone companies render the function unusable.
If you really think there ought to be a law. <One of the most dangerous statements you can make>
Make it a law that works, it's simple, cost effective. It probably won't happen because it will not generate as much revenue as passing out tickets to teens who ignore the law.
Someone will point out that it would inhibit the passengers in a vehicle from texting.
True, but I could care less. Aren't you happy that I'm not the person who decides for you, what you can do.
its not the talking on the phone thats so bad.
its the ones with a tablet velcro'ed to their steering wheel surfing the net or watching videos that scare me.
Plus the texters that sit thru half a light not realizing the car in front of them is now a block away.
its the ones with a tablet velcro'ed to their steering wheel surfing the net or watching videos that scare me.
Plus the texters that sit thru half a light not realizing the car in front of them is now a block away.
You're right. I say that if law enforcement does witness it and pull's that driver over, give them a ticket and make the fine at least $500. Hit them in the wallet.
I don't wait that long before informing them with my horn that the light is green. I've sen many of these people with out even looking up just take off and go when I give the horn a short bump. If I were a real asshat about it I'd toot them when I see them staring down at the phone on a red to see if they actually drive into traffic.
I dislike texting and driving but we don't need another law. The majority of phones now days are more than capable of locking themselves out when you are driving, manufacturers could be socially responsible and voluntarily agree to engineer just such a feature into the phone. But they'll wait till we pass a federal law banning phones that don't lock out certain features while moving.
I fully support this feature, I do text while driving but it may look rally funky because I don't proofread them when I'm driving and Siri can do some funky voice to text conversion.
Voice to text rocks, but it isn't perfect, for sure. It sure has helped me a lot though. I will admit to texting while driving, I have tried to cut back, but it is a habit that dies hard. I just hate hate hate talking on the phone. Hate it. I have one girl friend who likes to call me when we're both driving and chit-chat, and I despise it. lol
I have noticed myself veering a time or three. It sucks. I know, I'm an *******. I've never denied that.... go ahead and throw me in jail. Whaddya gonna do.
I have noticed myself veering a time or three. It sucks. I know, I'm an *******. I've never denied that.... go ahead and throw me in jail. Whaddya gonna do.
Agreed!
A majority of drivers don't drive 11 hours so that's kind of a moot point to me.
Studies that I've seen, show that a driver on the phone to his ear or texting was more impaired than a driver after a few beers, and significantly more impaired that performing any other activity in the care. Dunno where the cutoff for alcohol was, but I definitely believe it.
and this is why the laws either need to be enforced or something needs to be written...... people don't really care.
Pretty easy to enforce. Just drive along in an unmarked car and look for drivers with their phone in their hand at the steering wheel, or looking down to long. Catching people would be like shooting fish in a barrel! In my 25 minute commute, I see more drivers texting than not texting!
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