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Outlaw text messaging while driving

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Friday, Mar 30, 2007 - 12:24:33 am CDT

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.

Story Photo
(LJS Photo Illustration)

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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Definately wrote on March 30, 2007 6:09 am:
" Yes Definately!!! This needs to be a law. Its way over due with cell phones. They need to meak it illegal for both texting and cell phones. The adults have no common sence anymore. Its really quite simple to turn the phone off while driving or pull over and then call back if it that ungodly important of a call. This is a issue that our state lawmakers would finally get credit for. State highway funding would go up as a result. This is a win win situation. Lets hang up them devices like we put out them butts. My next step is to outlaw drinking in bars. I got the blackberry to get looked at. You all will see. "

 tom b wrote on March 30, 2007 7:11 am:
" good idea...but what about cell phones all together... i also think we have enough laws to cover this problem... how about reckless driving...tailgating...not signaling lane changes...cutting people off...lets try enforcing these things before making another law that no one enforces... "

 scott wrote on March 30, 2007 7:14 am:
" how will this be inforced? as they can't enforce speed limits or red light runners. maybe they can give the cops a dohnut commission to make them have a reason to catch law breakers. just put the cell phones down and drive!!! "

 JT wrote on March 30, 2007 8:11 am:
" Is there any way to enforce this law. Of course people shouldn't text while driving, but how would a law enforcement officer know when someone is breaking the law? "

 CS wrote on March 30, 2007 8:13 am:
" And the industry's response is going to be exactly what it was, just more so in court. There are already laws for negligent driving. Making a specific law for every possible named distraction wastes money and time. You might as well pass a law against OnStar or the dashboard clock, or in dash cd players. Let natural selection run its course. Everyone likes to think they are invincible-eventually they are wrong. Trying to coddle those people with a law that won't do any good by the time you get to enforce it, because they will be dead, is merely posteuring. Spend some time with a few laws that might do some good like clarifying benefits packages-is sick time considered compensation or not?- or working on lowering the tax burden on something that everyone pays into. Then at least you might convince some of we younger types to stick around after graduating from college because even if our first job doesn't pay as much as we'd like we'd get to keep a little more of it. "

 David wrote on March 30, 2007 8:33 am:
" Amen .... hallelujah, now if they could only stop the thousands of bad drivers I see every single day on my way home from Lincoln. Up I-180 ... every other car take a look at the driver and you will see a cell phone up to their head. I counted on I-180 yesterday alone 14 drivers talking on their cell phones in the short span from the Cornhusker Highway exit to the I-80 exit... yes you heard me right 14. At 65 Mph between that small stretch of paved road that is way to many distracted drivers during rush hour especialy when it only takes one distracted driver to cause a accident. On I-80 to Omaha from Lincoln I loose track of people talking on their cell phones or looking down at their laps trying to press buttons on their cell phones while they speed along at about 75 to 80 Mph. "

 hmmm.. wrote on March 30, 2007 9:07 am:
" Can you really classify between people texting with people reading, putting on makeup or even eating while driving. I agree that it is very dangerous however I think you're trying to put a stop to something that goes far beyond just texting and may have to be taken care of by awarness not by a law. "

 CS wrote on March 30, 2007 10:03 am:
" Maybe you should focus on, well, driving, and not what everyone else is doing. Isn't looking at everyone else in their cars as distracting and as bad as what THEY are doing? "

 Jodi wrote on March 30, 2007 10:18 am:
" I agree texting while driving is bad since it requires you to take your eyes off the road for more than a fairly quick glance as well as several times while reading responses and also because it fully occupies your texting hand, or in some cases, both hands. Reading is not a good thing to do while driving, especially not in stop-and-go traffic or on a busy fast-moving road. But cell phone usage is really not that different from having a conversation with a passenger or listening to the radio, especially if one uses a headset or other hands-free option. Are we also going to make it illegal for people to listen to the radio, to drive while their kids are yelling in the backseat, to eat food and/or drink beverages, and to drive with passengers and have a conversation with them? Most distracted drivers are noticeably distracted long before they do something to cause an accident. Perhaps we need to be fair in our enforcement and not penalize those who choose to have a hands-free voice conversation via their cell phone any more than other distracted drivers. I will also point out that I think having someone to talk to or something to listen to helps me focus on what I am doing and keeps my mind from wandering. Of course, I usually am having "social" visits, not "business" or other that might require much thought and/or the ability to take notes. "

 No Bad Laws wrote on March 30, 2007 12:20 pm:
" It is shortsighted to think just because it is outlawed that people won't do it. Last time I checked drunk driving was illegal yet people do it all the time. The articles and media hype surrounding this topic and others just hype the situation and get the flock all riled up. These articles would have us believe that people completely focus on texting while driving. Obviously this is not true. Texting can be an issue, but so is eating, or changing the radio dial, or looking for a new cd to put in. We don't need another unenforceable law, we already have one that covers this, its called reckless driving. "

 how silly does this sound wrote on March 30, 2007 1:00 pm:
" lets ban radio's in cars altogether. heck, me looking at my GPS to make sure i'm not lost takes me away from the road, so ban that too. oohh... that's right, when someone is talking to me, it also means i won't be thinking about the road, so better put sound sensitive alarm's in there, to make sure no one talks. here's a thought, lets take out the laptops in every police cruiser, since that has to be as dangerous. who cares if they need it, looking down takes away from driving.... oh yea, also CB's need to be banned, since they take away from your concentration. not that i've ever seen someone pulled over for having their headphones from their ipod in their ears, but why shouldn't that happen? also, if your baby is crying, i'm sure you could get a ticket, i mean heck, lets go for the gusto here.... who wrote this, sen. cudaback? "

 billy bob wrote on March 30, 2007 2:03 pm:
" i think that you should be able to text while driving. thats 3 accidents how many drive while texting about very teenager in every state does 3 out of thousands and if your goin to outlaw texting you should outlaw everything and you can only have your two hands on the wheel and looking straight. i see were there coming from but if you otlaw one thing you have to outlaw them all. "

 Mike Honcho wrote on March 30, 2007 2:45 pm:
" Texting and driving makes me more alert. I think the law is stupid. In fact the DMV should test you on your mulitasking skills while driving. "

 gina wrote on March 30, 2007 4:33 pm:
" Im sorry the cellphone needs to be used only when u are at a rest stop or pulled over that is how my husband in up in a wheelchair because people dont pay attend to what they are doing when they are driving when they are on the phone the only time i answer the cellphone is when i have someone eals in the car. PEOPLE NEED TO PAY ATTEND TO THERE DRIVING NOT THEY'RE CELLPHONE. "

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