Cell phone accidents may spark driving law to silence Texas teen talkers
Texas teens, soon two of your favorite pastimes will be split. Going to the mall and enjoying a burger? No, cell phone talking or texting — and driving.
This week the Texas House tentatively approved a measure which would ban teens under age 18 from using a cell phone while driving, even if the phone is a hands-free device. Exceptions would be made only for making emergency calls while behind the wheel.
Those teens ticketed for such an offense would receive a fine. However, they would not have the offense placed on their driver’s record. For opponents of the measure, that seems to be an olive branch to let this seed of a bill grow into the sturdy trunk of a law.
Already, Texas teens are prohibited from talking on the phone while driving for the first six months after they’ve received their driver’s license. Also, many Texas cities have enacted or are considering a cell phone ban for anyone who’s driving in a school zone. They include Dallas, West University and municipalities in Travis County. And already, states across the nation are enacting laws to protect us from ourselves by limiting the cell phone use of all drivers.
Legislators in Austin also are mulling a statewide ban on cell phone talking while anyone of any age drives in a school zone.
How dare they, some will say. They’ll whine and moan that this tramples their rights, or that it’s unenforceable, or that the government should stay out of people’s lives. Well, sometimes action must be taken. And however imperfect that action may be, at least it’s action. Besides, though no law aimed at widespread behavior is completely enforceable at all times (remember this argument when seat belt laws were passed?), that doesn’t mean it can’t do some good.
This is one of those times. That’s because Texans are being slaughtered by distracted drivers in cell phone accident or texting accident tragedies.
The Texas Department of Transportation reports that, over the last two years, at least 6,500 Texas traffic accidents have scarred our state due to distracted drivers talking or texting on cell phones. Fifty-nine people in these accidents died, and many more were injured — some seriously. And all of them suffered so another driver could chat with someone miles away and lose their focus when it really counted.
News flash: When you’re driving, that crucial moment could come at any time.
As Texas Rep. Jose Menendez of San Antonio points out, studies show that persons talking on cell phones while driving have roughly the same reduced reaction times as those who are under the influence of alcohol. Menendez, in fact, is leading the fight to get cell phone use in school zones stopped — statewide.
But why protect only children, and why single out only teens under 18 for cell phone restrictions while driving?
All lives count, and all Texans have a grave responsibility behind the wheel. That’s why we all should be protected from this modern-era plague on our roads and highways. Phoning or texting while driving may not be illegal yet, but causing a death or a serious injury in a traffic accident most certainly is.
If you or a family member has been harmed due to a distracted driver’s negligence, alert a car accident lawyer or auto accident attorney with Jim S. Adler & Associates. Your Adler Texas personal injury lawyer can send a loud and clear message — without phoning — that indifference to public safety and the greater good will not be tolerated.
Also, don’t hesitate to support legislation that’s geared to stem such cell phone driver distractions. Cell phone companies generally have fought such laws for their own selfish reasons. The public must step up to assert its own rights.
And since distracted drivers love to get messages, here’s another to send them: If you yack, you’ll get flak.
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Comments
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I totally agree with your view of cell phone use while driving. I can testify to the dangers because my children and I were struck by a cell phone “Drunk Driver” while at a complete stop and were injured. She was looking straight at us and I even made eye contact with her in my rear view mirror, but it was obvious when she didn’t even slow down much less stop, that her mind/attention was somewhere else. All the officer gave her was a ticket for failure to control speed. She was in one of her employers company vehicles on her way back to her employers Houston location only seconds away from the site of the accident. Please let me know how I can help with the “Texas cell phone use while driving” issue. If I knew who her or her company cell phone provider is I would file a law suit against them for not adding safe cell phone use policies to their sales/contract agreement. I don’t know if her employer has a safe cell phone use policy. Thank you for bringing this ignored driving hazard into the light of justice. Doing the right thing isn’t always easy or politically correct, but the end result is why our forefathers persevered and endured.
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