Driving While Texting: Stop it before it stops you

I see people texting while driving now.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/feb/...-it-it-stops-/

There is a technological wave sweeping the United States. Cellular
telephones, cellular smart phones, PDAs and other devices are becoming
as common as the home telephone.

In fact, an estimated 83 percent of all Americans, 254 million, are
current cell phone subscribers.

Nowadays, however, cell phones aren’t just for talking.

Texting — that is, sending, receiving and reading text messages from a
cellular device — has exploded in popularity.

America is in the midst of text-messaging mania. According to the latest
survey from CTIA — the Wireless Association — 158 billion text messages
were sent in 2006. That’s a 95 percent increase from 2005 and translates
into about 300,000 text messages per minute.

Unbelievable? The next time you drop your child off at school, take a
moment and observe the number of cell phones. Then watch the number of
children looking down at their phones while entering text with both thumbs.

And it isn’t just kids. Watch the business people downtown, or at the
airport, send and receive e-mails and texts. The time to text, however,
is not when driving a car.

But according to a Harris Interactive poll, 57 percent of drivers who
know how to text admit to have done so while driving.

The results are sadly predictable. Texting drivers are killing or
injuring pedestrians, other motorists and themselves.

What can be done to stop this deadly trend? Tell your friends. Counsel
your family. Contact your legislator. Tell them to pass legislation
outlawing texting while operating a moving motor vehicle. There are
already bills filed in the Florida Legislature that can be passed this year.

Of course, there are those who say eating, drinking, even changing the
radio station while driving is dangerous — and they are right. But
texting can be even more dangerous.

Texting requires attention to compose a message, the use of both hands
and vision diverted away from the road to look at a 2-inch display screen.

This sort of driver inattention already causes 80 percent of automobile
crashes.

Others claim a ban on texting is an unnecessary addition to Florida law.
Tell that to the parents of the child killed on his bicycle by a texting
driver. Laws that save lives are necessary and as citizens of this state
it is our obligation to call for them.

A prohibition on texting gives law enforcement specific guidance to stop
dangerous behavior. Florida already bans television screens that can be
seen by drivers. A ban on driving while texting is a logical extension
of that law.

Moreover, 89 percent of American adults already support a ban on texting
while driving.

Don’t wait for a tragedy to call for a change. To contact your
legislator about text free driving go to www.textfreedriving.org.

Tell them there is a time and place for texting and behind the wheel is
not one of them.

Messer is a partner with the law firm of Fonvielleinline typ Lewis Foote
& Messer, a member of the Florida Justice Association and founder of the
Text Free Driving Organization. He may be reached at