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Should driving while texting be a crime?
Topic Started: Feb 13 2008, 12:56 AM (1,795 Views)
Mystical
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Should driving while texting be a crime?
Sending and receiving text messages has joined talking on a cell phone as a dangerous distraction for drivers. State legislators are taking notice.


During the morning rush hour on Dec. 5, the 53-year-old driver of a blue Dodge Caravan was traveling north on Interstate 5 outside Seattle when he took his eyes off the road to scan an e-mail on his BlackBerry, the State Patrol says. And that's how he hit the white Mazda, which clipped the green Honda, which rammed the black Toyota SUV before spinning into the other lane and plowing into a city bus.

Nobody was seriously hurt. But the episode sparked a chain reaction of a different sort in the Washington State Legislature in the form of a bill that would make it a crime to "operate a motor vehicle while reading, writing or sending electronic messages."

"I think just about everyone realizes that text messaging while driving should not be acceptable," says Joyce McDonald, the bill's sponsor. But the Republican member of the Washington House of Representatives also recognizes that people call it "CrackBerry" for a reason: She cheerfully admits she'd probably scan her own device on the drive to work "if I didn't need my reading glasses to see e-mail."

Forget DWI. The big new traffic-safety issue is DWT: Driving While Texting.

McDonald is joining a crowd of politicians seeking a crackdown. In neighboring Oregon, pending bills would provide fines -- up to $720 in one of them -- for any driver caught texting or holding a cell phone to an ear. And in Arizona, a bill is pending that would make DWT a ticketable offense.

DWT is an extreme version of a whole new class of modern "distracted driving" issues lawmakers are wrestling with as electronic devices become an ever more important part of people's lives, in and out of their automobiles. Lawmakers are being encouraged by insurance companies like Allstate, which has added an e-mail fanatic to its stable of "multitasker" safe-driving ads. The campaign shows the "dedicated investor," who is balancing a BlackBerry and the business section of a newspaper on the wheel while he navigates his sports car through stop-and-go traffic. (Another scene in the ad shows a driver changing his trousers while blazing down the highway).




Driving while talking on cell phones has gotten the most legislative attention. Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, California and the District of Columbia outlaw the use of handheld phones while driving, and 38 states are currently considering 133 bills that would regulate their use behind the wheel, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Some wireless-industry supporters argue that statutes barring texting while driving are too specific. What is needed, they say, is not narrowly focused legislation, but a campaign to educate the public about all driver distractions. In Washington, D.C., an industry lobby group called CTIA -- The Wireless Association has begun tracking legislation, including McDonald's bill, and scratching out a strategy to counter it.

"I don't think you'd find anyone who would say that trying to text and drive is not reckless behavior," says Joe Farren, spokesman for the group. "If you're being reckless, you should get a ticket." He adds that his group has taken no formal position on text-message bills such as McDonald's.

Reading and typing in traffic
Few driver distractions seem quite as frighteningly intrusive as attempting to read and type messages while weaving in traffic. The first reported incident of DWT may have been in Tennessee in 2005, when a man died while texting when he lost control of his pickup and plunged down an embankment. In Colorado that same year, a teenager served 10 days in jail after he struck and killed a bicyclist while texting a friend.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insur...ngBeACrime.aspx
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Mystical
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I personally don't think anybody should be doing anything but driving while behind the wheel of a car! It's amazing what you see while driving down the road. People reading the newspaper, talking on the phone veering in and out of traffic while painting their toenails c'mon people these are machines that can put you in the hospital if you don't pay attention.
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Darknight
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Well there are two ways to look at this. I really wouldn't consider texting on the road to be a crime. But if it endangers the lives of not only the driver and passengers then I would say he/she should get punished according to his action.

Speaking of blackberry A friend of mine has one he does like to text surf the net listen to music etc. But he doesn't do these things while he is out on the road
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ravenheart_05
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One would think that common sense should take over and that people would not even dare to Text while driving. Sadly, many of the accidents I have heard about in my area because of this are caused by teenagers who have just barely received their licenses. They already feel they are immortal, (speaking from experience here!!!), and texting to them is just another thing they do all the time without even thinking. They bring that mentality into a 3000 lb piece of speeding metal and sometimes they lose. I drive by a tree almost every day where a teenager died becuase of this last fall. It is extremely sad to see. I hope something can be done about this. Then again, how many of us drive while eating, (guilty here!!), or do other things that distract us for even a second which could be just enough time to get into trouble?
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Mystical
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True Ravenheart I'm also guilty of eating while driving but not texting. :lmao: I'm lucky if I can text sitting still in my home :lmao:

My daughter was in an accident last December "She was not driving but a passenger in the front seat" Sitting at a stop sign to make a right hand turn they were pushed into the intersection. Her and 3 other girls all had whiplash and the car was totaled. The man who hit them said that he had dropped his cell phone and went to retrieve it off the floor.

I think that cell phones in the car are a bad idea any way you look at it!
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Darknight
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ravenheart_05
Feb 13 2008, 06:50 AM
One would think that common sense should take over and that people would not even dare to Text while driving. Sadly, many of the accidents I have heard about in my area because of this are caused by teenagers who have just barely received their licenses. They already feel they are immortal, (speaking from experience here!!!), and texting to them is just another thing they do all the time without even thinking. They bring that mentality into a 3000 lb piece of speeding metal and sometimes they lose. I drive by a tree almost every day where a teenager died becuase of this last fall. It is extremely sad to see. I hope something can be done about this. Then again, how many of us drive while eating, (guilty here!!), or do other things that distract us for even a second which could be just enough time to get into trouble?

What some people fail to realize ravenheart is that common sense isn't so common :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:
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ravenheart_05
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So true, DK!! This same thing reminds of a story I heard a few years ago, not sure if it was true or not, about a woman who was driving down the highway, put her car on cruise control and proceded to climb into the backseat. She thought it was like an autopilot!! Kind of makes me think of how people like that can get their license in the first place!! :wall:
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Isis
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This is insane no one should text and drive a car, In fact you really shouldn't even talk and drive it's just not safe..... :reading: :swoon:
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Mystical
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When my cell rings and I'm driving they can just leave me a voicemail. I've watched people driving while talking on a phone and they are not paying attention. Quite a few accidents have resulted from cell phone use.

:lmao: OMG ravenheart that is bizarre "Autopilot" :swoon: You know I think that people get relaxed and comfortable when they have been driving for a while. The teenagers think they are invincible. Nobody realizes that you are sitting in a cockpit and you are at the controls of everyone in that vehicle. I truely believe we take our lives in our hands when we get behind the wheel.
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Darknight
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Isis
Feb 17 2008, 10:03 PM
This is insane no one should text and drive a car, In fact you really shouldn't even talk and drive it's just not safe..... :reading: :swoon:

I'm still trying to get my head around the whole concept of driving while texting How would you do them both at the same time.
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Mystical
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Exactly DK but people do it!
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Darknight
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Well I guess if you can drive with your knees then I guess there is no problem
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Mystical
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:lmao: I wouldn't attempt it but I've seen people doing it.
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Darknight
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I can do it. :lmao: :lmao: :lmao: One of my many talents. :)
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Melanie
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Texting and driving is an absolute no no in my opinion - its so dangerous
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