Nearly everyone acknowledges that texting while driving is dangerous. It takes your eyes off the road, focuses your mind on other matters and prevents you from paying full attention to traffic. And yet many of those same people, especially young drivers, continue to text behind the wheel, despite the fact that they know the risks.
On Thursday, a law goes into effect making it illegal to text while driving in Massachusetts. Drivers who are caught sending text messages will have to pay $100 fines for a first offense, while those under 18 who break the law will have their licenses suspended for 60 days and be forced to take a training course, in addition to the fine. Under the law, texting while driving is a primary offense, meaning police officers can pull drivers over as soon as they see them typing on their cell phones.
Texting while driving bans are inherently difficult to enforce. Not only can it be tough to spot cell phone users in a crowded roadway, but the details of how police will decide exactly who to pull over is not clear. How will police officers distinguish those who are texting from those who are merely typing in a phone number? Texting is not permitted, but what about the equally distracting activity of changing the song on your iPod? Or what about entering an address into your GPS? There are a host of activities that are equally dangerous to do while driving, none of which are prohibited.
Although it will be difficult to enforce, it is better to illegalize texting while driving than to stand idly by and allow distracted driving to take people’s lives. Texting is one of the most distracting activities you can engage in behind the wheel. While young drivers in particular often think of themselves as invincible, texting poses a risk to drivers of all ages. No matter how good you think you are at texting, it takes only a split second of distraction to make a life-threatening mistake.
It is unfortunate that it is necessary for politicians to legislate something that should be common sense. Drivers need to put their priorities in order and realize that getting to your destination safely is more important than sending that “LOL” to the friend whose house you left five minutes ago.
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