Distracted Driving

I find it somewhat amazing that there are not more state laws associated with distracted driving.   Don’t get me wrong, I am not a believer in over legislating our nation, but with more and more driving accidents and deaths associated with cell phone and smart phone use while driving, it just seems like there is a very delayed reaction to getting some good laws on the books.

My experiment the other week was to see how far I could drive concentrating only on driving.  My result….not very far, but I think I got farther than most.  At each traffic light,- I noticed about half the drivers either talking on their phones or fiddling with their blackberry’s.  Makes one wonder how we actually led our lives without these things.   The best (or worst) example I came across was an off duty police officer in their own car texting a message while waiting for a light to change to green.  I rolled down my window and waved to catch the attention of the officer.  When she looked at me I asked her what the law was regarding texting while driving.  She gave me an interesting look and before pulling into the intersection just said “Don’t do it”.

Maybe the laws are common sense laws, and maybe there will be some distracted driving laws on the books soon that is more of a deterrent than, “Don’t do it”, but until then I suppose its up to us.

Remember, distracted driving is more than texting.  Its also dangerous to eat, talk on the phone or any other activity that takes our mind, eyes or hands off the wheel and the road.  Over 80% of all accidents involve some form of distracted driving and texting while driving is theoretically equivalent to a BAC of 0.08.  If its illegal to drive with a BAC of 0.08, shouldn’t it be illegal to text while driving?

Distracted Driving = Don’t do it!