20 Apr
Today’s behind-the-wheel civics lesson
by Steve Prestegard, Marketplace of Ideas Blog
Over the weekend, I got this news release:
Teens want Senate to crack down on Drivers who Text – HARD!
They don’t even have a drivers license yet, but some Green Bay teens want their Wisconsin Senators to get tough on people who text while driving.
“There’s no incentive to not if it’s such a small fine,” said one teenager at Excel Drivers Ed Class this week. “If you really, really want to stop it, the first offense has to hurt. And, if they don’t get it, the second one needs to hurt more.”
Texting while Driving is akin to Drinking while Driving and the statistics support it. So do the kids — even though most of the kids in the Excel Class text almost ALL the time (but not in class, of course). “If it’s as bad as our teacher says, it needs to stop. The Senate needs to make it meaningful otherwise, MORE people are gonna get hurt.”
The State Assembly passed a $400 first offense fine; $800 for the second. ALL the students in the Excel class approved. They disapprove of the Senate version which was, well, way watered down.
That’s one view about texting while driving legislation. Here’s another:
Aren’t laws supposed to keep people on the straight and narrow? Aren’t they meant to make it so that people know that there are consequences for their actions and impose a penalty for violating those laws?
If that’s the case, then there is little reason to pass the ban on texting while driving because it’s impossible to enforce. How can a police officer know if someone is texting while driving? When they pull you over, are they going to ask for your license, registration, insurance and cell phone? Does anyone seriously think that police officers are going to be going through the “sent items” folder on all of the cell phones they request? …
This law is little more than a feel good measure for legislators who want to pass a law that they perceive will make them look caring at election time and since it passed on a 30 to 3 vote, it seems that everyone in the chamber wanted to get on board with the tough on texting legislation. The problem is that this is knee jerk legislating. If there’s already a law on the books to address inattentive driving, why do we need another law to do the same thing? The reality is that we don’t.
If they wanted to make it tough, they should have required that violators of this new law go into high schools classrooms a few times a year for some lengthy period of time — say a decade, and explain how their texting while driving caused harm to persons or property.
After all, while I have been driving, I have noticed people texting while driving and there is a marked difference in how people text and drive across the generations. Young people, including people in their teens and early 20’s I have noticed, sit there and stare at their phones until their messages are done; driving with their knees and giggling. People a little older hit a few keys and return their attention to the road before looking back down at their phones. This is not to say that either is safe — in fact both are dangerous. However, only the oblivious would argue that they are equally dangerous.
I believe this is what educators call a “teachable moment,” although it’s probably not the teachable… Click here to read more at http://www.marketplacemagazine.com/blogs/blog2.php/2010/04/20/today-s-behind-the-wheel-civics-lesson
