Texting while driving law gets limited use
So they’re having trouble writing tickets for drivers caught texting while driving. Maybe they’ve even gotten a clue and realized it isn’t worth the trouble. Can they prove the person was texting and not doing any one of dozens of other activities that aren’t illegal? Most likely not.
Me, I have a Droid Eris. I’m writing this post on it (while safely not driving). When I had a phone with a physical keyboard I would quite often text while driving because I didn’t have to look at what I was doing. If traffic was heavy, if it was raining, or any other reason that actually needed more than, say, 70% of my attention, the phone went back into my lap. Now with only a keyboard on the touch screen, I don’t text while driving because it takes away too much of my attention. Even with Swype, it’s too difficult and not worth the risk.
However, there are tons of other things I could be doing with my phone that aren’t illegal. Talking on it is illegal in some places, not here, but I’m not going to get into that. I could be pulling up Pandora because I’ve gotten sick of the stupid djs on Sirius radio. I bought XM because there were no djs, now I’m stuck with the idiots on Sirius just like the ones on regular radio who made me get satellite in the first place. I could be checking my email. I could be reading my Twitter feed and checking the links people post. I could be checking my geocaching app to see what’s nearby. None of these things are illegal, but every bit as potentially dangerous.
Meh. In some things, I’m all for big government. This time, though, it’s a stupid knee-jerk law that’s a waste of the paper on which it’s written.
One Comment
my province is launching a similar law this week and while i agree that cell phones can be a dangerous distraction, the law itself just seems like a cash grab. how about putting more effort into getting violence & criminals off the streets? i’d rather be a victim in a fender bender accident, than a stabbing or sexual assault…