Yahoo Autos If Drivers Aren't Allowed to Watch TV in Cars, Why are Texting and E-mailing Legal?
In the debate over whether it should be legal to talk on cell phones while driving, I’ve always come down on the side of talking—with a little common sense applied. It takes hardly any time to dial a number using a phone’s memory, and most people are capable of having a conversation while steering with one hand, as long as the driver isn’t in the middle of a blizzard or turning left onto a six-lane municipal artery during rush hour.
All of the arguments about hand-held or hands-free phones have always struck me as minor issues because the real potential problem is driver distraction, not whether a driver is holding the phone in one hand. And it turns out that there are other electronic distractions that make the debate about how you talk on your phone seem like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
At a recent General Motors meeting where I was learning about the benefits of the newest version of OnStar, a journalist asked if the system could read e-mails or text messages to the driver or even use voice recognition to write them. The journalist said he’d really like to see that feature, as he did e-mail on his BlackBerry while driving and mentioned that his teenage daughters texted all the time while behind the wheel.
I’ve known this person, who shall go nameless, for a long time and have generally regarded him as reasonably sane, but I was flabbergasted by his matter-of-fact admissions. I’ve informed my daughter, Madeline, who is about six months away from getting her Michigan learner’s permit (for which she is eligible at 14 years and nine months of age in this graduated-license state), that she will instantly lose any driving privileges she has if I find a cell phone even turned on in a car with her, let alone catch her talking on it while driving.
I don’t believe that young drivers are capable of properly judging when they can make phone calls safely while driving. Given their inexperience, they should focus their limited powers of concentration on the driving task for their first few years behind the wheel.
Reading or writing e-mails is obviously way more distracting than simply talking on the phone, as it requires the driver to focus on a tiny screen and try to accurately hit corn-kernel-size buttons with one or both hands while both driver and electronic device are bouncing around. It’s as distracting as driving while trying to eat a veal parmigiana in your lap, using a knife and fork.
I admit the temptation exists. I carry a tiny BlackBerry Pearl. It’s a terrific device, functioning as a decent cell phone, providing an e-mail connection, and performing several other useful functions. When the Pearl’s red light blinks, signaling the arrival of a new e-mail, my hand moves automatically toward the device. But I resist the impulse to pick it up because the distraction of using the thing is so overwhelmingly obvious. Let me say this plainly: Anyone who texts or does e-mail while driving a moving car is a moron.
Apparently, there are plenty of such morons around. A recent survey by Nationwide Mutual Insurance found that 18 percent of cell-phone owners—and who doesn’t own one?—text while driving. Not surprisingly, given their infatuation with electronic gadgetry, young drivers text even more often. A recent survey from FindLaw.com indicates that 48 percent of drivers between 18 and 24 text while driving, with the texting falling to just 2 percent for drivers between 55 and 64. In other words, the youngest, least-experienced drivers most often engage in this distracting activity.
Most people don’t consider the consequences because, a lot of the time, they get away with sending a text message without incident. There are several Facebook groups with names such as “I Text Message People While Driving and I Haven’t Crashed Yet!” I guess the same logic can be applied to randomly firing a gun into the sky from your back yard. Most of the time, the bullet comes back to Earth without hitting anybody. Same goes for driving while over the legal alcohol limit. But if you do get into an accident while intoxicated, or your bullet accidentally hits someone, the justice system holds you accountable because you should have anticipated the possibility that your activity could result in a disastrous outcome.
Not so with texting. Every state has strict laws against DWI. Twelve states have complete or partial bans on using hand-held cell phones, and 18 of them restrict cell-phone use among young drivers. But only four states—Alaska, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Washington—have passed laws prohibiting texting while driving.
For a state to prohibit talking on a cell phone that a person holds in one hand while driving yet allow text messaging on that same phone, a procedure that can require two hands and both eyes, is absurd. Texting is clearly way more distracting and dangerous than talking on a phone. In fact, it’s not obvious to me that driving while texting is any less dangerous than driving drunk.
While there have been a number of well-publicized accidents caused by drivers who were distracted by texting, hard statistics tracking the number of crashes caused by this activity are few and far between. One problem is that drivers who text are often not observed in the act because the phone is held much lower in the car. And even though texting is not illegal in most states, few drivers involved in accidents are likely to admit to it for fear they might be cited or even charged with a more serious offense.
Of course, if the accident involves a critical injury, the police could subpoena a driver’s phone records and possibly determine whether text messaging was occurring at the moment of the mishap.
Whatever the legality of this activity, texting while driving is obviously asking for trouble. None of us should ever do it. And if we do and injure someone in the process, doing hard time strikes me as an appropriate punishment.
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