Your texting & driving rights, defended by patriots

Strangest beginning to a news story we’ve seen in a while:

“PHOENIX — Arizona drivers’ right to compose and send text messages from behind the wheel of a moving vehicle has successfully been defended.”

This from a report on the defeat of a distracted driving bill, written by Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services. The headline in the Arizona Star noted that the bill “was sent packing.”

Guess the Arizona cops would have to pry the text messaging devices from freedom lovers’ cold dead hands.

A distinct possibility, if you think about it.

After a crash and ‘epiphany,’ Ky. rep votes yes

Last week, State Rep. Keith Hall of Kentucky turned thumbs down on a plan to ban text messaging while driving. He voted against HB 43 in the House Transportation Committee.

The measure succeeded, though, and went before the full House on Feb. 4. This time, Hall voted yes with the zeal of a recent convert.

“I’ve had a change of heart,” he told the House.

That’s because the night before the vote, his wife reportedly reached for her ringing cell phone and plowed into another vehicle.

“I heard the sirens go off, and my cell phone rang and they said, ‘Your wife has just had a serious traffic accident,’ he told fellow legislators during debate.

“That’ll give you an epiphany,” he said. “That’ll give you a wake-up call.”

Kentucky’s distracted driving bill HB 43, which also prevents teens from using cell phones while driving, cleared the chamber in an 80-16 vote.

People frustrated with legislative resistance to cell phone and texting legislation sometimes wonder if distracted driving has to affect lawmakers personally before they’ll vote yes.

Sometimes, yes.

Governor reaches out to drivers — by texting

Props to Gov. M. Jodi Rell for her plan to toughen Connecticut’s existing ban on driving and talking on handheld cell phones. She’s pushing for a text messaging ban, too.

No doubt Rell is one of the good guys on this issue.

But, get a load of the unfortunate wording in this invitation from the gov’s official web site:

Dear Friends:
If you are like me, there are days when you are on the road all day, away from your computer and with limited access to e-mail. However, you want to be the first to know of the important news … from my office. Now you can.

Sign up today to get text messages from my office sent to your cell phone. After all, keeping you up-to-date on what we are doing in Hartford is one of my top priorities. (Our italics)

Let’s hope no one who is “on the road all day” with a cell phone causes a wreck while reading Rell’s text message — regarding her text-messaging ban.

‘Name and shame’ cell phone violators

Steady, cell phone chatterers. The Essex Chronicle in England has decided to “name and shame” drivers who are violating traffic laws by using mobile phones behind the wheel.

A reporter accompanied local police as they cited drivers for chatting and texting while motoring. The newspaper then printed the perps’ names and photos.

The unusual tactic sometimes is used by the media to humiliate prostitutes’ johns, but the cell phone suspects didn’t seem all that repentant.

“I don’t like people telling me how to live my life,” said second-time offender Gemma Dean. When asked if she felt like she was endangering others by cell phoning while behind the wheel, she replied: “I don’t really care.”

At least one fellow caught one-handed admitted: “I feel a bit stupid now.”

An online commenter pointed out that these are alleged offenses. “The Essex Chronicle are NOT the police or a magistrates court!”

In any event the cell phone chronicles could be good for circulation. “Buy this week’s Chronicle for more on the issue and to see if you were pictured on the phone behind the wheel by our photographers,” the paper’s web site urged.

Distracted driving progress cited by NYT

“I’m on a rampage about this, and I’m not going to let up,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says of the dangerous practice of text messaging while driving.

Rampage on, Ray.

LaHood’s comments were reported Jan. 3 in a New York Times article, “Bills to Curb Distracted Driving Gain Momentum.” The article adds nothing new to the conversation about distracted driving, but contains a few items of interest.

• “Proposals (to curb distracted driving) are being met with less resistance than in years past from legislators, and are enjoying newfound industry support,” the article says. Reporter Matt Richtel says 200 bills have been filed regarding distracted driving, but doesn’t specify a time frame.
• “People are starting to see it like drunk driving, and that’s the comparison we need to continue to make,” said Steve Farley, an Arizona state representative from Tucson.
• Of critics of distracted driving legislation, Farley said: “They will always believe this is an issue of personal freedom. They don’t take into account the loss of freedom when a texting driver runs into someone and kills them.”

The New York Times deserves credit for the distracted driving stories it has been cranking out over the past year. At least in bulk, the Times clearly is in the lead in mainstream media coverage of the issue — even if the stories are mostly recycled news.

‘Cellphone Madness’: Dumb but fun

These college kids from Toronto are clever enough to make this video but dumb enough to think cell phone driving laws don’t work. Pretty funny, though. (Hat tip to reader James for finding this.)

Fla. no longer distracted on texting, driving

Florida, one of the stumblebum states when it comes to distracted driving laws, finally appears to be waking up to the dangers of cell phoning and text messaging behind the wheel.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist signaled the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to get behind legislation that would rein in drivers’ texting and mobile phone chatting.

“I think it would provide some safety for our people,” Crist told highway department chief Julie Jones, in a classic of understatement (according to the News Service of Florida).

The Legislature rejected or ignored all 2009 bills that would limit drivers’ use of mobile phones and text messaging devices.

“It looks to me like the state Legislature is more concerned with a healthy bottom line for cell phone companies than it is with people dying on our roads,” said a student involved in a “Stop Texting and Telephoning in Cars” campaign.

As lawmakers across the nation were acting on the menace of texing and driving, legislation seeking to save lives in Florida couldn’t get arrested — couldn’t even get a committee hearing — as the lawmakers spent their days mudwrestling over the budget.

“It’s slowly been building,” Sen. Carey Baker, another Sunshine State understater, says of distracted driving legislation. “But I think this year (2010), something’s going to pass.”

The 2010 session begins March 2. This time around, there are more than a dozen distracted driving bills and more sure to come from lawmakers seeking a free ride on the bandwagon.

One reason: Three of the bills come from candidates for statewide office, the news service points out: “Sens. Carey Baker and Paula Dockery, Republican contenders for agriculture commissioner and governor, respectively, and Sen. Dan Gelber, a Democratic candidate for attorney general.”

Crist himself is seeking a Senate seat and can use all the crossover support he can get, based on recent GOP satisfaction with the governor.

Go Gators … and go get a clue, legislators.

Read more about Florida text messaging and handheld cell phone legislation.

Prolonged texting like DUI in Britain

The New York Times continues its welcome crusade against texting and driving with a look at a British case in which one young woman was sent to prison for killing another young woman.

Phillipa Curtis, 22, rear-ended Victoria McBryde’s broken-down yellow Fiat, killing McBryde instantly. Curtis had been texting, but not at the exact moment of the crash, the Times reported.

New British sentencing guidelines equate prolonged texting before a crash with drinking and driving, or with drag racing. The guidelines call for terms of four to seven years. Curtis received only 21 months.

The Times reports:

“Britain’s new guidelines state that using a hand-held phone when causing a death will “always make the offense more serious” in terms of punishment and lead to prison time. Texting is given special treatment. … Although most European countries and a minority of American states now ban the use of hand-held cellphones while driving, Britain has become one of the more aggressive countries in attacking the problem.”

One can only wonder how American legislators would make of the prolonged DWT concept — considering that many can’t figure out how to exempt 911 calls from hands-free legislation. Or are stumped by how police could possibly tell if a driver were texting.

Curtis, whose lenient sentence was upheld because of her “geniune remorse,” is shown in a photo accompanying the article — walking into court while having a chat on her cell phone.

Pilots’ screw-up: ‘distracted flying’

Ever feel like doing some detailed staff scheduling while cruising along at 500 miles per hour?

That’s the story du jour from two pilots at Northwest Airlines regarding their infamous 150-mile overshoot of the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport the other day.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., called the incident “the ultimate case of distracted driving — only this time it was distracted flying.”

Having just days before made that landing at MSP on that very airline — sitting next to my 16-year-old boy — I’m rooting for some serious prison time for these clowns (who apparently dressed as pilots for Halloween).

For the record, they’re first officer Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., and captain Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Wash.

Whether they were sleeping, engaged in “intense conversation” or fooling with their laptops — whatever the explanation is today — they endangered the lives of 144 people who put their trust in a major airline and its flight crews.

Northwest should refund those passengers’ money as well.

(Updates: The pilots’ licenses were revoked on Tuesday. The AP reported that the FAA is likely to take a hard look at the use of portable computers and other portable electronic devices by pilots. There are no federal rules that specifically ban pilots’ use of these devices if the plane is flying above 10,000 feet, said an FAA spokeswoman. Delta, which owns Northwest, said using laptops while flying is against policy and would result in termination.)

Maine’s distracted driving law in action

Maine’s controversial distracted-driving law is now in effect and has snared at least one violator: a teenager from New Hampshire.

The 19-year-old admitted she was text messaging Oct. 4 just before she plowed her vehicle into a utility pole in the city of Kittery.

The neighbors took notice — their power was knocked out for the afternoon.

Maine’s distracted driving law went into effect Sept. 12. Legislation specifically prohibiting texting and handheld cell phone use while driving failed to advance in 2009, and critics have said the general law does not adequately address these dangerous practices.

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