A letter to the editor recently suggested that education rather than an additional law is a better answer to the problem of hazardous driving caused by drivers texting while driving. In light of a news story I read a couple of months ago, I wonder what kind of education it would take to be effective.
Here’s the story. A young man was driving and texting. He drove through a red traffic light. He said he never saw the light. He rammed into the side of a car driven by a young woman who had the right of way. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Doesn’t it seem that an experience like that should be a sufficient “education” for such a texting driver?
It wasn’t. Less than two months later, he was again texting while driving and came very close to running another red light. But, someone might say, he didn’t actually run the red light that time, so maybe he was, indeed, educated by his first mistake. Come on! The point is, that young man killed a human being less than two months before, and there he was still texting while driving!
It has been suggested that texting for some persons is a form of addiction, like to cigarettes or alcohol. That’s possible, especially if we use the following definition of addiction: to repeatedly do something that is destructive, in spite of painful consequences or the threat of painful consequences. But, whether driving and texting is addictive or not, can it be argued that it is an immature and irresponsible kind of behavior that needs to be considered dangerous to public safety and deserving of social condemnation?
And, please, don’t respond by saying that it would deprive us of yet another one of our “freedoms” to pass a law against such driving. Such drivers run the great risk of depriving another person, or persons, of their freedom…to continue living. And, seriously, just how much are we asking texting drivers to give up? Would it really be such a huge sacrifice on their part?
By the way, after we deal with texting drivers, maybe we can turn our attention to drivers who: eat while driving, apply lipstick (looking in their rearview mirror) while driving, and read while driving. I’ve seen all of those on our streets.
Robert L. Stevens
Timmonsville
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