| Jul 10 |
Texting Texas students are fatally distracted drivers to come
As the headline and the article’s content make clear, KHOU’s author considers the problem to be this: “Some schools are cashing in.” She goes on to question how the money collected when students break the rules and text in class is administered. Though there’s no evidence given of impropriety, the author’s conspiracy-theory attitude seems to be, “Those mean ol’ sneaky school districts!” Of course, the real problem here with far broader implications and concerns is this: Too many of today’s students are disengaged from teachers, class, learning and their immediate environment because they are addicted to cell phones, texting and other avenues of needlessly incessant and exceedingly trivial communication. These same students, when they drive a car or do a job for which others depend on them, are far more likely to continue such addictive behavior, thereby failing at their responsibilities and, in worst cases, killing themselves or someone else by being a distracted driver. Fortunately, most readers of KHOU’s website who commented on the article were amazed that the writer took such a slant and dismayed that so many students willfully break the rules that are clearly set forth at the start of the school year. And after three decades as a professional journalist for major daily newspapers, I agree. THAT should have been KHOU’s story, and the station blew it. Meanwhile, schools are trying to do a better job of teaching by forbidding the devices — and are fighting an uphill battle. Keep in mind, too, that besides being a distraction, a cell phone could be a means of cheating on tests or other in-class work which requires students to demonstrate how much they’ve learned, not how much they can dig up by furtively texting under their desk. Bottom line: Texting has no place in classrooms, and the Texas Education Code is correct in allowing school districts to fine students for breaking cell phone rules that are clearly stated up front. So far, only Texas has taken such action. Of course, parents and taxpayers also have a right to know how the collected fines are allocated, and school districts should be forthcoming in this matter. It should be in a responsible manner, naturally, and if it’s not, they should be held accountable for it. But the far greater concern here — for KHOU website readers and surely for the citizenry at large — is the blatant disregard of the rules by so many students, so many times, that school districts do, in fact, amass thousands of dollars in $15 fines. That’s an epidemic of inattentiveness and “the rules don’t apply to me” attitudes — an epidemic which eventually will spread to other aspects of life, as when young people text while driving a car and end up killing themselves or someone else. That said, many such students have one excuse: They learn bad behavior from their own parents, many of whom text or cell-talk themselves while driving, and even try calling or texting sons or daughters while they’re in class. And what’s the excuse? Even if it were an emergency, a school’s administrative office could be called, then quickly contact the student. Yet how many times is parent’s or student’s classtime call or text a true “must know now” emergency? For more bad examples, parents talking and texting while driving in school zones has gotten so bad that some municipalities have had to pass laws to curb such distractions. Too many kids have been hurt — and even killed — due to distracted drivers in school zones. BTW, to use text talk, the Texas Department of Public Safety reports that at least 13,000 car accidents in recent years have been caused by talking or texting distractions via cell phones. And those accidents have killed at least 126 Texas sons and daughters. Now, what are you most concerned about: How quickly school districts allocate fines collected from students breaking rules, or how many students are more interested in texting than textbooks — or their own individual responsibility? |
Talk about failing to see the forest for the trees. A news report by Houston’s KHOU TV Channel 11 on its website today has the headline “Cell phone fines mean big bucks for some Texas school districts.” The story concerns fines students must pay when they text or otherwise use cell phones in class, which is against school rules.
| May 15 |
Cell phone accidents may spark driving law to silence Texas teen talkers
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. |
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.| Apr 20 |
Drunk driving AND calling ensure a car accident
That’s what Houston prosecutors are confronting as they assess the case of a man who reportedly was both drunk and receiving a cell phone call when he ran off a road and into a drainage ditch recently near Bush Intercontinental Airport, causing the unimaginable horror of drowning five young children who were occupants of the vehicle. |
Studies show that persons who call and text while behind the wheel drive as poorly as if they were drunk. Now imagine a driver being drunk and using a cell phone at the same time.| Mar 24 |
‘Zombie’ callers, texters are accidents waiting to happenOne such cell phone accident occurred at episode’s end when Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) was fleeing her maniacal husband. She’d escaped his clutches and was in her car, which she frantically raced down Wisteria Lane while — perhaps by force of habit — she looked down to dial a number on her cell phone. Now, as smart drivers know, taking your eyes off the road even momentarily can be dangerous, if not deadly. Edie learned this lesson — too late. When a pedestrian appeared whom she belatedly noticed, she swerved her rushing car into a light pole, and at episode’s end it was suggested she was dead. Now, how important was it to make a phone call while driving? Important enough to kill someone, including yourself? |
| Feb 24 |
Texas’ cell phone accident reform gets cash-clogged deaf ear
You may be saying to yourself, “I talk on my cell phone while driving, and I haven’t had a traffic accident yet, and I don’t want to quit.” But if Erin had been your daughter, you might sing a different tune. |
Perhaps if Erin Leas had been the daughter of a phone company executive when she died in a car accident due to cell phone distractions, | Feb 06 |
To skirt cell phone accidents, Selena Gomez will hang up and drive
Selena has vowed to hang up and drive — at least, when she gets her license. “Don’t do a thousand things in your car!” Selena told People magazine. “In the car, just focus on what you need to be doing.” And that means driving. |
Actress Selena Gomez is a smart girl who’s onto something — something even more vital than courting the tweens who could push her past Hannah Montana’s Miley Cyrus as the Disney Channel’s next megastar. In fact, it’s something that could save Selena’s life — by preventing a car accident.| Feb 04 |
Inattentive driver kills school boy in car accident tragedy
In this case the boy, Cameron Dumore, was walking to school in Lithonia, GA. He was crossing the street within a crosswalk. A crossing guard was present, waving a handheld stop sign and alerting vehicles to stop. And they were, of course, in a school zone. No matter. Despite all these things, an SUV driven by a 40-year-old woman disregarded the cross walk, the school zone, the crossing guard, the handheld stop sign and every other indicator to stop — including the boy himself — and, without slowing down, struck the boy and killed him. |
Again, an innocent human being — this time a 7-year-old boy — has died — lost a lifetime — due to momentary driver distractions or inattentiveness.| Dec 29 |
Texting drivers get car accident wakeup callA recent survey for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. reveals that 19 per cent of motorists admit to texting while driving. The real amount is probably higher, since not everyone will admit doing something so stupid. In fact, another survey in Massachusetts indicates that 28 per cent of people text while driving. |
| Nov 05 |
Progress is slow, but cell phone accidents take hits
In Texas alone this week, some progress has been seen in communities around Houston, as well as in the capital city of Austin. Austin’s public safety task force this week passed a resolution directing Austin City Council to have its city manager develop regulations to prohibit text-messaging while driving a car. The city manager and his staff are expected to create such a proposal and give it to city council members for consideration. |
Now that many people have been killed or injured due to cell phone accidents — killed by drivers being distracted while calling or texting — the inevitable but gallingly slow process of legislatively addressing the problem is proceeding.| Oct 16 |
Cell phone device may ease auto accidents
No, it’s not a new state law, such as those in New York and California, which bans using cell phones while driving without a headset that frees both hands. Rather, this progress comes in the form of a device which will disable cell phones for real-time talking, texting or receiving messages while that phone is moving at a speed associated with a vehicle. A Canadian software company called Aegis Mobility has developed the device, which is called a DriveAssistT. In effect, it takes the decision to use a cell phone while driving out of the driver’s hands. |
Finally, progress is being made in the face of mounting carnage on America’s roads due to driver distractions caused by cell phones. And it’s not what you might expect.