Currently, there is a bill in the Michigan Legislation that
would put a statewide ban on texting while driving.
First of all, we shouldn’t need a law for people to stop texting
while driving, it’s pretty much common sense, and yet, all the time
I get friends texting me and they say, “I’m driving.”
But why would you text and drive? It makes no sense. I know some
people are going to say this to my next comment, “No Mark, you’re
wrong!” But text messaging while driving is a hazard and it kind of
is like drinking and driving.
It’s the same because you’re not paying attention to the road. Nor are you
really thinking about driving and people who text while
driving are thinking about where the banging party in the Student
Ghetto is tonight.
Don’t think so? Car and Driver did a study and found that people who
text while driving, and reading messages as well, were just as bad
of drivers as someone with a 0.08 blood-alcohol content, which is
considered drunk in all 50 states.
A study done by Virginia Tech showed that drivers who text while
driving increase their chances of an accident by 23 times and 16
states have a ban against text messaging while driving. According
to CNN on Aug. 6, Illinois will become No. 17. I hope Michigan
follows through and becomes No. 18.
It seems like the vast majority of Americans think this a problem
since a recent AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety said that 87
percent of Americans said that texting was a “very serious” safety
hazard.
But then when I ask why people do that, they say, “I can multitask.”
The realty is no, you can’t. Put the phone down when you’re driving
80 mph down I-94. If you don’t, you could be the victim of a
rollover accident. Sounds fun huh?
It just makes no sense to text while drive and what is so important
that you need to text somebody at that moment? Wait until you get to
your destination. Even if you’re a good driver, you still a major
hazard if you text and drive. Use common sense.
I know it’s harsh, but hey, somebody’s got to say it.
Mark Rudi, the Western Herald sports editor, is a senior majoring in
journalism and can be reached at herald-sports@wmich.edu.
About awioskowski
Yeah, not safe, but how am I going to update my Facebook and Twitter? It’s safer to send a text to those sites rather than try to navigate on the mobile web browser
jk
Cell phones were invented for idiots. Just look at all the mostly useless bells and whistles that were added to the basic functionality of voice communication.
Texting is the prime example. Texting itself MAKES NO SENSE. Why go through the trouble of creating a relatively high bandwidth network that can use high tech audio encoding and compression to transmit your voice at the speed of light across the country and then denigrate it to a form of communication that’s only a couple steps above Morse code? Add to that the small keypad required to transmit such text, which until recently didn’t even have the standard QUERTY layout. Yes, anyone who texts when they could simply talk is an idiot.
(Note: the hearing impaired are obviously excluded from this. I’m talking about people who can hear perfectly and yet choose text over voice.)