Bill would ban DWT
Posted
Jul 29 2009, 04:57 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Sorry, folks, but sometimes lawmakers do need to legislate against stupidity. Is there no better example than DWT -- driving while texting?
We weren't surprised that some of our readers found it difficult to believe that talking on a cell phone -- handheld or hands-free -- is more distracting to a driver than talking to a person who is sitting in the car. But could anyone really think that DWT is safe?
Common sense screams that it's not, and the newest evidence just confirms the obvious. Surely you've read about the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study that found that a driver who is texting is 23 times more likely to crash or have a near crash than drivers who are actually paying attention to the road. Also, according to The New York Times:
In the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers typically spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices -- enough time at typical highway speeds to cover more than the length of a football field.
Equipped with this new information, four U.S. senators have introduced a bill that would require states to ban driving while texting or e-mailing within two years or lose a quarter of their federal highway funds "each year until the money was depleted," The New York Times says.
Only 14 states and the District of Columbia consider DWT a traffic offense right now. And the penalty is often so low -- $20 or so -- that many people likely don't take it seriously.
So far, the Governors Highway Safety Association has said it doesn't like the bill. "We oppose sanctioning states since there is not yet a proven effective method for enforcing a texting or cell phone ban," association spokesman Jonathan Adkins told the NYT.
But that group agrees that driving while texting is a disaster in the making. In fact:
- Drunken driving may be safer. A Car and Driver experiment -- not very scientific but it made a point -- indicated that drunken drivers have much better reaction time than sober drivers who are typing or reading a text message, The New York Times' Wheels Blog reports. (The Car Tech blog has more on that.)
- It's quite common. In a recent survey, 26% of cell phone users admitted that they text while driving, Car Tech says. (ATX Group plans to sell hands-free texting that uses speech recognition technology, but that's still a distraction, no?)
"If your time is so valuable that you would risk the lives of those around you while propelling a 3,000-pound piece of metal down the road at 60mph, then you need to hire a chauffeur," wrote Ed Hansberry at InformationWeek.
Related reading:
Feds withheld data on cell phone hazard
Should driving while texting be a crime?
How to deal with distracted drivers
