Outlaw text messaging while driving
The Nebraska Legislature ought to outlaw text messaging while driving.
The reason is obvious. It’s flat-out dangerous.
The activity involves the use of brain, eyeballs and at least one hand.
Too many people are willing to take the risk.
In a world of proliferating distractions for drivers, text messaging is one that should be illegal.
A 17-year-old Colorado driver busily typing a text message struck and killed a bicyclist. A driver using his Blackberry caused a five-vehicle pileup in Washington. A 26-year-old Tennessee driver was killed when he rolled his pickup truck while trying to send a text message.
The number of incidents probably is underreported, officials say, because drivers are unlikely to admit that they were DWT: driving while texting.
The cause of the one-vehicle Tennessee fatality would have been unknown except for witnesses who reported that the man was using his cell phone.
Troopers who recovered the phone confirmed that he was trying to send a text message.
Four states already outlaw text messaging while driving. Those are the ones that have seen fit to ban handheld cell phone use while driving.
Three other states, Washington, Oregon and Arizona are considering bills that would ban texting while driving.
The question is where to draw the line
In Nebraska LB415 would add texting while driving to the list of prohibited activities for beginning drivers who hold provisional licenses.
That doesn’t go far enough.
In an ideal world government wouldn’t need to make it illegal for people to do stupid, dangerous things.
And Lord knows people already do enough dangerous things while driving, from eating cereal from a bowl on their way to work to putting on makeup to dipping french fries into ketchup to trying to quell a fight between the kids in the back seat.
The wireless industry says that outlawing texting while driving is too specific, and that what the public really needs is a campaign that educates about the dangers of all distractions.
That sounds like a good idea, but more forceful action would be even better.
The incidence of text messaging behind the wheel is soaring. A study by Nationwide Mutual Insurance found that 19 percent of drivers, and 37 percent of drivers between the ages of 18 and 27 text message while driving.
In light of the apparently epidemic lack of common sense, a law making the worst of the new gadget distractions illegal would be a start toward slowing a dangerous trend.
The reason is obvious. It’s flat-out dangerous.
The activity involves the use of brain, eyeballs and at least one hand.
Too many people are willing to take the risk.
In a world of proliferating distractions for drivers, text messaging is one that should be illegal.
A 17-year-old Colorado driver busily typing a text message struck and killed a bicyclist. A driver using his Blackberry caused a five-vehicle pileup in Washington. A 26-year-old Tennessee driver was killed when he rolled his pickup truck while trying to send a text message.
The number of incidents probably is underreported, officials say, because drivers are unlikely to admit that they were DWT: driving while texting.
The cause of the one-vehicle Tennessee fatality would have been unknown except for witnesses who reported that the man was using his cell phone.
Troopers who recovered the phone confirmed that he was trying to send a text message.
Four states already outlaw text messaging while driving. Those are the ones that have seen fit to ban handheld cell phone use while driving.
Three other states, Washington, Oregon and Arizona are considering bills that would ban texting while driving.
The question is where to draw the line
In Nebraska LB415 would add texting while driving to the list of prohibited activities for beginning drivers who hold provisional licenses.
That doesn’t go far enough.
In an ideal world government wouldn’t need to make it illegal for people to do stupid, dangerous things.
And Lord knows people already do enough dangerous things while driving, from eating cereal from a bowl on their way to work to putting on makeup to dipping french fries into ketchup to trying to quell a fight between the kids in the back seat.
The wireless industry says that outlawing texting while driving is too specific, and that what the public really needs is a campaign that educates about the dangers of all distractions.
That sounds like a good idea, but more forceful action would be even better.
The incidence of text messaging behind the wheel is soaring. A study by Nationwide Mutual Insurance found that 19 percent of drivers, and 37 percent of drivers between the ages of 18 and 27 text message while driving.
In light of the apparently epidemic lack of common sense, a law making the worst of the new gadget distractions illegal would be a start toward slowing a dangerous trend.
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