|
by LAUREN LAWSON
News Reporter
Text messaging may soon be added to the list of illegal things to do while driving.
After clearing through the Senate Judiciary Committee, the bill supporting the ban will go on to the Senate Appropriations Committee this week.
Caldwell County Highway Patrol Trooper Pennington said cell phone usage as a factor in collisions is hard to prove unless the driver admits to it.
“No one is going to
admit to using their cell phone before an accident…anything that
diverts attention from driving is a problem,” Pennington said.
He said using your cell phone is a problem, just like putting on makeup or any other distracting task people do while driving.
“If
attention is brought to the car such as swerving or any other violation
then I would pull them over, and if they had been using their cell
phone I would try [to] educate them about the dangers,” Pennington said.
He has
never had anyone admit to using his or her cell phone while driving,
and while it is a problem, the issue is being able to enforce the law.
Currently
drivers under the age of 18 and bus drivers cannot use their cell
phones at all while driving, except for certain exemptions such as if
the driver is speaking to a parent or they are talking with emergency
services.
“I’m not
just going to stop some one if they look under 18, it would only work
if it was more specific like the seat belt issue,” Pennington said.
“[It] needs to be across the board illegal for all drivers or it
doesn’t work.”
He said
if it were illegal for all drivers it would be easier to enforce
because you can see someone talking on their cell phone or looking at
their phone while driving.
Senior
political science major Emily E. Smith said it is a great idea to ban
texting but is not so sure about banning all cell phone use while
driving.
“To text
it requires you to concentrate on the screen, which is a problem,
especially in Boone,” she said. “With the traffic picking up and you
are bumper to bumper if you slip up and lose concentration for a second
you could hit someone.”
Smith was in an accident due partly to texting a year ago.
“I was
texting to find out where to meet up with people when I was driving
into Boone and the woman in front of me suddenly braked because of
traffic and I was looking down and drove into her,” she said.
Smith said the accident caused $1,600 worth of damage to her car and $1,000 worth of damage to the vehicle she hit.
“It could have been prevented…the cost of a text is 5 cents, the cost of an accident is thousands,” she said.
Senior biology pre-professional major Nick Jewett said he thinks the bill would be hard to both pass and enforce.
“Texting
is dangerous—you can’t look at the road,” he said. “I’ve definitely
almost been hit a bunch of times from people busy with their cell
phones.”
Jewett thinks texting should definitely be banned, but is not so sure about talking on a cell phone.
“Maybe there could be a compromise like making hands-free devices mandatory while driving,” Smith said.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Show/Hide comments
