by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: December 18, 2010

In many states, talking or texting while driving is a crime. But the individual states must determine if the death rate from driving any vehicle while texting, talking or fiddling with mobile phones is acceptable. In this political era of  "I demand to do anything that I want to with the government staying out of my business", even something as deadly and destructive as driving while phoning is becoming difficult to regulate.

The fact is that doing anything but driving easily can become the equivalent of drunk driving, and the horrific train, bus, cargo, service and private vehicle accidents that result from distracted driving is becoming a universal hazard, even when the state has mandated hands free devices for mobile communication. This is because a large number of people simply do not "get it" that the practice is a threat to all who are on and near the roadways.

Because there are other tasks besides talking and texting that drivers do to distract themselves, a more general set of laws, programs and punishments that would cover anything that caused enough of inattention to cause an accident or road violation should be considered. Drivers read print material, apply makeup, get into fights, scramble to retrieve dropped drinks, food and cigarettes, interact with their children and stare for alarmingly extended periods of time at their passengers when they are talking to them.

These are all conditions that are turning even a short, local drive into a dance with fate. As a result, a nationwide and comprehensive program of dealing with all forms of driver distraction needs to be considered, with Federal transportation money being dangled like a giant carrot to give the states some incentive to wake up and smell the coffee.

In urban areas, the situation has unique levels of hazard. There are the longer stretches of the suburban streets and interior city expressways, where regular commuters know the streets so well that they feel they can multitask while driving. In the isolated and rural areas, long stretches of low populated roads and highways can require that the driver multitask in order to avoid road narcolepsy. But when individuals insist on speeding through congested areas, there have to be better incentives for making them focus on following the rules of the road.

The problem is that, with cuts in funding, patrolling is cut and the worst offenders do not get caught.  The solution would be having more camera surveillance on roadways and at intersections. This would help to identify those who are thoughtless and egregious violators and would help with any criminal and civil cases against them.

Yes, hands free devices should be mandatory for mobile phone use while driving. But without much more surveillance, active patrol, apprehension, enforcement, and serious consequences when caught driving while distracted, we will simply have to add the host of  uncontrollable distracted drivers to the host of uncontrollable drunk or drugged drivers when we consider leaving our homes (some of which are also vulnerable to out of control drivers) to go anywhere.

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