Texting while driving is twice as deadly as driving drunk....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 6-28-2011

1. People who drive drunk have several problems that make them a real menace on the road and can also kill them too.

They may be too sleepy to react at all in an emergency. Or they may simply fall asleep while driving.

And, even if they react on time and correctly, their ability to recover from that first sudden move is missing. The accidents they are in are often from losing control of their car in that way.

They are more likely to be speeding or speeding a lot. And they are more likely to be in the vehicle that is striking the other. This leads to much more severe accidents, injuries, and death.

(Really drunk is from .16 to over .24 blood alcohol – twice to over three times the legal limit in California where I live. Even though there are bad accidents with people who are less drunk, the ridiculously bad, horrible accidents tend to be when people are really drunk.) Six or more drinks at a time in short time will do it. Four or five can get there or close to it.

2. Given that, something that is twice that bad is pretty awful indeed.

Well imagine what driving at normal or fast speeds with your eyes closed could do on a busy freeway or when coming to an intersection with a lot of traffic or pedestrians.

People who text and drive do exactly that without realizing it.

People who drive well otherwise and are experienced at using a cell phone while still paying attention and driving, can in my experience, talk on their cell phones without this effect. (I’ve not done so. But many people I know have needed to for their work and driven a lot with no accidents.)

But people who are careless drivers to begin with and stop paying attention to the road in front of them while talking on their cell phones and people who text while driving have driven through red lights and forced other drivers off the road.

Bill Phillips in “The Top 5 Killers of Men By Bill Phillips and the Editors of Men's Health Jun 16, 2011,”

>>>> had this in that article:

“Stop texting while driving.

You’ve probably heard that texting behind the wheel is just as dangerous as drinking and driving.

Not true. Texting is way more dangerous.

In fact, texting increases your risk of a crash by 23 times (versus 11 times for driving under the influence), according to a Virginia Tech study.”

Nor is this limited to men.

A recent story about a young woman who never even slowed down for a red light due to texting is exactly why it’s so dangerous. A woman and her toddler were in the cross walk. The woman only went to the hospital with severe injuries but likely will survive. Unfortunately, her toddler was killed instantly.

Few drunk drivers come close to being that bad – though I concede there are some.

So, if you want to avoid having such deaths and injuries on your conscience—

if you want to avoid driving out in front of a loaded semi going 45 miles an hour on a busy road—

if you’d like to avoid a $10 million dollar liability judgement when your liability insurance covers a fraction of that….

…PLEASE consider not ever texting while behind the wheel!

If you can use a cell phone to call and still pay attention to your driving, do that.

If you live where it has to be hands free to avoid a ticket do that.

If you find you weave in your lane or aren’t reliable about stopping when you should – as some people are! – while talking on your cell phone, don’t do that either.

Otherwise, pull over into a parking lot and do it there while the car is parked and stop texting and set down your cell phone or mobile device before starting your car!

Given how serious this threat is and given how many young people today text and drive, I think that either talking on your cell phone and driving as if you weren’t mentally all there or texting while driving at all, I think the first offense should be the maximum sentence for reckless driving.

The second offense should be losing your cell phone or mobile device on which you were texting on the spot with no recourse. And another reckless driving ticket.

The third should be losing your driver’s license for a year -- and having your car confiscated or its owner who allowed you to drive it pay a fine equal to your reckless driving ticket.

Then once that is in place, anyone who gets a license has to pass a test with a 100 % correct score to pass on why not to text and drive AND these penalties.

There are some videos of really horrific accidents where the driver was texting. You should also have to watch several of those also before getting your license.

With drunk drivers, you can avoid most of them by not driving later than 9 pm at night or before 4 am. And, NOT right after a sports event where people often drink.

But without these laws, you could be driving any time or walking across an intersection with the light – or someone you care deeply about could be doing so, and suddenly be killed or maimed by a texting driver.

Given how many people now have these devices, if this is not done, we may be unable to drive anywhere at any time and be sure we will arrive safely.