California missed the mark. Cell phone use on the road period is dangerous. But the one thing that should be illegal is texting on the road. To me thats far more dangerous than having the phone up to your ear while operating a vehicle. However, “Hands Free” devices are also a good idea especially when we have people driving manual vehicles. I just don’t think that people should be multi-tasking and putting lives in danger. Texting needs a lot of a persons attention and can be far more dangerous than putting a phone up to you ear.
Texting while driving can be hazardous. Dialing generally doesn’t take as long as texting so its not as dangerous. an officer would easily be able to determine if someone is texting or dialing. The law needs to be adjusted especially when people might resort to texting rather than putting a phone up to their ear. This can make the road much more dangerous than it already is especially in Los Angeles.
July 7, 2008 at 4:25 am
I completely agree with you. I was texting in the car today and I was thinking, wait this should not be allowed. you have to take your eyes off the road and onto the little keys of your phone to write a message, find the person you are sending it to, and ofcourse send it then read their reply. It’s pretty crazy that they forgot this little detail. Maybe they will add that in in the future. I won’t be doing that anymore, or i’ll try not to. There is way too much risk.
July 7, 2008 at 6:45 am
I completely agree. It’s so much worse to have your eyes off the road texting, than having one hand on the wheel with both eyes ON the road talking on the phone.
July 10, 2008 at 1:14 am
I agree with everything you said. A few days after I talked about this same problem, I heard that the person who wrote this law, is working on one for texting. He says that when he wrote this first law, which was in 1999, there was not a problem with texting. I heard this on KNX 1070 news radio.
July 14, 2008 at 6:04 am
I do agree. Multi-tasking is bad. Your statement is right, in my opinion, but also it is right to restrain adolescents from talking over the phone while driving. In terms of neuro science, adolescents from 13 and 19 have not developed the right amount of myelin composed of neural cells in the frontal lobes. Their brain activity is dominated by the amygdale which is part of the limbic system that is in charged for emotional processing. Mature frontal lobes allows us to control impulsive behaviors.