State Bans Texting While Driving

netbuzz writes "The state of Washington yesterday became the first in the nation to ban text-messaging while driving. The law could use sharper teeth, but it's a natural and necessary progression of the movement to clamp down on those who find the need to constantly communicate more important than the safety of their fellow travelers."

Comments

Whatever happened to common sense?

[Antony-Kyre]

Whatever happened to common sense?

Re:Whatever happened to common sense?

[x_MeRLiN_x]

A man driving a lorry in the UK who was sending a test message to his girlfriend and killed another driver received 5 years in prison back in 2001. Not paying due care and attention to the road has long been a crime in the UK and more recently this has been extended to no use of mobile phones unless you make use of a hands-free kit.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1166267.stm

Re:Whatever happened to common sense?

[Anonymous Coward]

a lady just like that killed two friends of mine on their motorcycle.

she wasn't brushing her teeth, instead she was wrapping a gift for her grandchild's friend, and talking on a hand's free.

it was out in the suburbs and she pulled her car out from a side street onto a non-divided highway of 4 lanes, and the speed limit is 65mph.

my friends goldwing was going about that speed when the lady pulled out suddenly with only 20 feet to spare.

he pulled a nearly miraculous maneuver to miss the woman, leaning the goldwing to max lean angle...but they left the road, bodies separated from the bike, and two humans and a motorcycle tumbled into a convenience pole, and fence at high speed. helmets were of no use.

lady claimed that she never saw them. grandchild in the car, gave the cops very detailed info on what happened right before the accident.

jury will probably give her a years probation...if that.

Re:Whatever happened to common sense?

[glenstar]

Hey, you know what? I am a smoker (obviously) and I can't stand the smell of smoke (rather, I can't stand the smell of other people's smoke). I am sympathetic to your cause except for one thing: There were plenty of places in Seattle (and throughout Washington) that were non-smoking. It's not like someone chained you to a barstool in a smoky bar.

Re:This is a First Amendment Issue!!!

[Tuoqui]

Actually theres a study out that equates driving while on the cell phone being 400% more likely to get into an accident.

Forbes Article
400% more likely claim supported by Berkely Lab Of course there is the psudeo-science of the Mythbusters as well where they placed a sober driver on the cell phone and a 'drunk' but under the legal limit of 0.8% blood alcohol level and put them both on a closed course and had them navigate it. They did it both sober with no distractions as a control as well I believe. Turns out they both did equally bad. I am not saying it is a perfect experiment (such would require more than 2 test cases) but it does illustrate that distraction or inebriation = bad for driving ability regardless of the exact percentages involved. and another article from The Straight Dope