Senators to introduce legislation banning texting while driving
It's already been banned by a number of states and the District of Columbia, but a group of Democratic senators led by New York's Charles Schumer are now set to introduce legislation that would ban texting while driving throughout the United States. That, as you may be aware if you've been watching the news this past week, follows a study from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which found that truck drivers that texted while driving were 23 times more likely to get into an accident than non-texters -- to say nothing of several calls for a ban from major safety groups over the years. While complete details on the proposed bill are still a bit light, it would apparently withhold 25% of the annual federal highway funding from states that did not comply with the ban, and would reportedly be modeled on the way the national drunken driving ban was introduced.[Via Phone Scoop]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
cesium @ Jul 29th 2009 11:54AM
please do this. some asshat almost slammed into me on the highway yesterday while texting..
Kumar @ Jul 29th 2009 1:25PM
Same thing last week. Car careened into my lane...head down.
The only thing many more tests will 'prove' is that texting is causing more accidents, many more near-accidents, and much more traffic due to texters driving more slowly and holding up traffic at green lights.
Metro @ Jul 29th 2009 12:04PM
How would Law Enforcement prove someone was texting?
Kevin @ Jul 29th 2009 12:52PM
Exactly. And to add to that question; how did Virginia Tech get these statistics???? Did they actually conduct an experiment where they had truckers going out on the road while texting just to smash into people while driving? I sure hope not. Sounds like a bunch of crap to explain something that should be common sense to stupid people.
The only way they could get these numbers is from the truckers stating in a police report that they were texting while driving. And if the truckers had any brain at all, they would never tell anyone that they were texting because who would know? Cars cant see you when your up that high. I think the more interesting statistic here is that 100% of the truckers that admitted that they were texting while driving are retarded and shouldn't be driving anything let alone a giant truck, so maybe its not so much the texting? hmmmm.....
Kumar @ Jul 29th 2009 1:20PM
Google is your friend...in the time it took to ask how they tested, you could have known:
"The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration awarded a $300,000 contract to Virginia Tech to do the study. Trucks were fitted with video cameras that captured the drivers' faces in the six seconds leading up to and during a crash or a near miss. The video showed texting to be an extremely high-risk behavior, mainly because it is associated with drivers taking their eyes off the road.
"In 4.6 out of the six seconds, they weren't looking at the road. They were looking at the device," said Rich Hanowski, director of the institute's Center for Truck and Bus Safety. "Anything over two seconds is dangerous."
Virginia Tech examined 4,452 "safety-critical events," including 21 crashes, 197 near crashes and about 4,200 other events, including unintentional lane changes. "
Kevin @ Jul 29th 2009 2:04PM
Sorry Kumar, didn't realize you were one of those truckers, didn't mean to offend.
Still a bullshit experiment, thanks for proving my point. Do we really need to know how many seconds our eyes are off the road when texting right down to the tenth when even a slow toddler could tell you its not a good idea to text while driving? Myth Busters could have done it for cheaper and it would have been just as accurate. At least then we could have had a half hour of entertainment while we are being spoon fed a bunch of crap.
Maybe they need to do an experiment about the lack of sense of humor on the internet. I'll even do it myself for half of what they paid for the texting experiment. I'll set up a private network of three people with no sense of humor and make fun of them for a month straight. After a month when they're all pissed off I could successfully conclude that there is absolutely no sense of humor on the internet what-so-ever based on my little private network of three that obviously represent the rest of the entire world. Add a "Tech" at the end of my name and we can call it official. There's a lot I could do with $150,000.
junior wizzy @ Jul 29th 2009 2:41PM
I heard Kevin Tech's football team is poised for a big season....
Kevin @ Jul 29th 2009 3:42PM
^^lol thanks wizzy. Although our team only consists of three people and no gear, I plan to apply for additional grant money to conduct an experiment where the subjects will continuously bash their heads against a brick wall to prove that it is indeed dangerous to do so. Only then can we be completely positive that its not a good idea for three people with no helmets to take on an entire football team head on. I will need a minimum of $250,000 for the right equipment to accurately measure the exact time it takes to bypass every fiber of their being telling them that it's a bad idea to the time their forehead actually makes contact with the wall down to the thousands of a second. The statistics that I will compile will be fundamental in the legislation against shaking baby syndrome.
junior wizzy @ Jul 29th 2009 12:26PM
it may spur some good voice to text apps...
on another note...I bet they never outlaw getting pleasured by a prostitute/intern while driving
bdenglish @ Jul 29th 2009 1:08PM
Yay. More tyranny from the federal government. What ever happened to states' rights
Douglas @ Jul 29th 2009 2:13PM
Go Hokies!! Although I like the idea of this, it should be up to the states to decide if they want to enact it or not. More central government control.... no thanks. I'll take federalism thank you very much.
ArmchairTaikun @ Jul 29th 2009 3:03PM
I agree that texting while driving shouldn't happen. But do we really need yet another law to take the place of good common sense? Once upon a time, we used to teach our kids common sense. I say, let drive-by texters get in trouble and then we can make an example of them by suing them for every penny they have and posting their pics online for public scrutiny. This should be enough to scare most straight.
216 @ Jul 29th 2009 3:04PM
hmm so they'll ban texting while driving, but what about sexting while driving?
rseijas @ Jul 29th 2009 6:36PM
Scvmbags in congress will probably write themselves an exemption to this as well.