Chas, thank you for putting perspective on this. My primary intent with this thread was not necessarily to get a new law put into effect(we do indeed have far too many), but to stir the pot and get some conversation going.Charles L. Cotton wrote:
In my first year in law school, I took a class called "Remedies." The professor made a statement that really stuck with me; "in a free society, not every wrong has a remedy." In this case, we have remedies when people injury, kill, or damage property while doing something negligent. If the act is sufficiently "wrong," then criminal penalties also apply. You want to criminalize acts that are done hundreds of thousands of times every day without causing injury, death or property damage, simply because they may (not certain, MAY) cause harm in a very small percentage of situations. I cannot support such laws. Again, I don't have a conceptual problem with texting and driving, but it would be an unenforceable ban for the reasons I stated.
Chas.
Right now, drinking and driving often leads to folks making it home at night with nothing bad happening, except some undue risk being taken. I see the exact same thing occurring with texting and driving.
Yet, when drunk drivers are caught, or when their act results in an accident, the outcome has become quite penalizing, and for good reason. I would like to see the same thing happen for texting while driving. I am all for individual rights, I personally think the government has no business in my home at any level. However, when so many people take to public roads and put others at risk like this, I feel like something should be done. I do not have the answer, if I did I would have said "we should do exactly this".
I've run into a lot of stupid drivers in my life, but nothing trumps almost getting smashed by a mom driving a minivan full of kids texting away and ignoring the red light.
At the bottom of all of this is a staggering lack of personal responsibility and accountability from a social perspective. I know this, and no law will fix this. However, a DUI can really ruin your life these days - I know plenty of people scared to death about getting one, especially those of us who run in the Defense/Federal circles. I'd love to see new drivers scared to death of getting caught texting while driving. I am not sure a law will change this, but I feel strongly something has to occur. Simply saying "well it is the parent's failure", sure it is, but that does not change anything. Laws cannot make people responsible, but they can certainly make them accountable.