Texting while Driving

22Jul08

California’s lawmakers struck a blow for roadway safety by approving a law that makes it illegal to drive with a cellphone held up to your ear.  This likely is having a huge impact on those people who consider a phone something akin to a hood ornament –you don’t drive without one.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit prior to the law taking effect I, too, occasionally drove around Burbank with the phone to my ear.  Usually, however, if I got a call, I would try to find a place to pull over and then, talk.

My latest gripe, however, is that the law does not go far enough.  It is not illegal to drive and text-message at the same time. I have watched a certain nameless individual do this more than once.  His explanation is he only texts while at stoplights.  But he reads the texts while driving and I think this is more dangerous than talking on the cellphone. 

Of course, I am not a text-virtuoso like most young people under the age of 30.  When I sent a text I have to have full use of both hands and most of my brain.  I am often surprised at young people who hate to write letters or essays are quite happy sharing their lives one text at a time.

One young person of my acquaintance says he gets 200-to-300 text messages any given day.  (I hope he has an all-inclusive phone plan).  I wonder what could be so important that people have to spend their whole day sending text messages to friends?  Is it the novelty?  Could it be the generation that never saw a dial-phone wants to connect but not talk to each other?

I have nothing against the concept of text-messages, I just wish the people sending them and receiving them would stop doing it in the car.

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