Remember that post yesterday about the study that said people who text while driving are 23 times more likely to crash their car? Well to prove once again that no tragedy (or study in this case) should be left unexploited some senators on capital hill are going to introduce legislation to make texting while driving illegal…
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jQIakqMFgrC0KAeMfxrWUQCz2U2QD99O2NL04
The legislation will use the federal government’s favorite weapon against state rights, money. Pretty much if a state doesn’t introduce a law making texting while driving illegal they lose their federal highway funding.
It’s funny how the states only have rights when it’s convenient for the federal government. For instance the states have a right to make their own gun laws when national reciprocity is being voted on but they don’t have the right to make their own gun laws when they want to make any gun sold and used in their state exempt from federal regulation. Well it looks like states don’t have the right to make legislation when it comes to their drivers either.
That said texting while driving is just fucking stupid. But just because something is fucking stupid doesn’t mean it should be made illegal. The fact of the matter is there is no way to enforce this law since phones can be used for a great many things. For instance my phone has Google Maps on it which I use to navigate my way around. But being I’m holding the phone to look at the map it looks like I’m texting.
Likewise reckless driving is already illegal hence if you are swerving around on the road while texting you are committing a crime and will most likely be pulled over. This law in effect will only exist to give police another reason to pull you over without having any actual reason to do so (sort of like Minnesota’s new mandatory seat belt law).