Statewide Ban on Texting While Driving: Yay or Nay?

Statewide Ban on Texting While Driving: Yay or Nay?

By Matthew Hendley Wed., Jan. 30 2013 at 6:00 AM

zazzle.com

Believe it or not, some people believe it's better to look through the windshield while driving, rather than stare at a cell phone screen.

Among those people are the state legislators who are proposing a texting-while-driving ban, which was also proposed last legislative session.

See also:
-Statewide Ban Proposed for Texting While Driving, but Sexting Is a Different Story

If you've operated a motor vehicle on major roads in the last five years, you've very likely seen some dumbass texting on their cell phone, while swerving all over the road as they remember they're also in charge of a few thousand pounds on wheels.

If you haven't been lucky, you may have been hit by one of these dumbasses.

However, it might not be the easiest ban to enforce, and some folks might see it as some more nanny-state legislation.

Tags:

arizona, freedom, sb 1218, texting, texting and driving

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Avery Marx

1 Like

Ban texting and talking. Stay off the phone and pay attention to the god damned road.

Brian Gosnell

Aye.

davelog

I consider it an indictment against our collective intelligence that this even needs to be a law. If it wasn't for the collateral damage, I'd say let 'em text away until they plow into the back of a dynamite truck. Natural selection at work.

Benje Meyer

Nay.

Joe Kennedy

Hell yay.

JoeArpaioFan topcommenter

1 Like

Yes!

Gary Waterman

Yay..even though I answered while driving.

JohnQ.Public topcommenter

Great desired outcome, poor approach. Texting is just 1 of 50 things I can do with my phone and 1 of 100 things I can do generally that could cause me to be distracted while driving. Am I any more or less distracted when texting than is the woman next to me putting on eye-liner at 50 miles an hour or the guy on the other side balancing a coffee in one hand and an egg mcmuffin in the other or the person behind me cradeling the morning paper on his steering wheel or the person in front of me turning around to put the binky back in her baby's mouth every 15 seconds. Each of them pose a similar danger on the road. We already have ARS 28-693 which states "A. a person who drives a vehicle in reckless disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving." A cop who observes any of the conduct I described, including texting, e-mail, words with friends, photo editing, stock monitoring, Siri chatting or any other phone activity other than talking, should already be able to issue a citation to the distracted driver for reckless driving which would make this new statute unnecessary.

interloper

@JohnQ.Public It is simply a matter of enforcement, like they've been doing in Cali.

Matt Rader

Yay. Arizona drivers are bad enough, they don't need more help.

Nomas Creativenative

Should I pull over or continue driving well responding

burt

@Nomas Creativenative Pull the fuck over. Better yet, ignore it until you're already stopped wherever you're going.

Kathy Puff

Ban it!

Brandon Doyle

Talk to text. Aka the smart way to do it

Jeff Ramon

Yay

April Howland-Artist

YAY

danzigsdaddy topcommenter

I'll be honest, I have no problem with there being a ban on it. I actually think it to be a pretty good idea to ban it. People are horrible enough drivers in this state to begin with, they dont need to try to multi-task on top of it all. Like @teknik said, I ride and see a lot of dangerous stuff going on already, and since most people can walk away from hitting a biker by saying they didnt see us..... I at least want them looking

Trinonymous

I don't know, it's a slippery slope: next they might want to outlaw drunk driving.

teknik

1 Like

yes, as someone who rides a motorcycle that sits fairly high It's alarming the shear number of idiots looking down at their phone texting while doing something extremely dangerous without realizing it. Things like idling down the road totally unaware. Typically honking at these people cause them to flip people off and become angry.