Preface:
I am in no way encouraging unsafe driving. The following is post should be taken as a bit of a satire. From a common sense perspective, not texting/making calls on a non-hands-free mobile phone, etc. simply makes sense. It simply is much harder - as a general rule - to keep your focus on the road and on the other semi-unpredictable drivers around you when tweeting at 75mph down the Thruway.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have something of a bias against texting in general, with its contribution to poor grammar and spelling allowed graciously under the guise of “abbreviated internet speech”, known to some of its users as “lolspeak”, and perhaps to (relatively older codgers like myself, in terms of the internet) as AOL-speak.

Lest I descend into a rant on the demerits of “u” and “urs” versus “you” and “yours”, much less the dreadful issue of wrongful placement of “there” and “their”, amid a one-man call for text-messaging altogether as a danger to losing our ability to communicate in aclear and meaningful way altogether… the issue is about road safety.

President Obama signed an executive order forbidding Federal Employees from text-messaging while driving government owned vehicles, or while using their private vehicles while conducting official government business.

Ray LaHood, our most dutiful “Highway czar” (Transportation Secretary) believes that this will “curb a deadly epidemic of distracted driving”.

(Source: NYT)

If banning text messaging (presumed by some to be a workaround to existing statutes to gabbing on a cell phone behind the wheel) is a start… why don’t our loving, statist protector-overlords complete the task and ban the following distracting activities while driving:

- adjusting/tuning the radio
- fiddling with the GPS navigation system
- turning on/off the air conditioning (or heat/defrost)
- mentally reviewing your shopping list
- applying your make-up at high velocity as you rush to the office in the morning
- scarfing down the McMuffin and the 170℉ McCoffee during Morning Rush Hour

…and so-forth.

I mean, all it takes is a split second of distraction to spell instant doom, right?

It may be just a matter of time until Obama bans other public nuisances such as young men who wear their pants down below their hips, and mothers who think that dressing their young pre-teen girls like streetwalkers is “cute”.

Now if we wanted to do this right… CONGRESS (not the POTUS) should pass legislation explicitly absolving the insurance from certain financial liability (that is, comp and collision damage, not the liability coverage mandated by most states) for accidents involving drivers and their use of cellphones or text messaging devices.

Let the market decide on these things-in short, people will almost always do the right thing if a mistake in the matter will directly hit them in the wallet or pocketbook.