I’ve been with motorists who drive down the center of the highway so they can text or talk on cell phones, scaring the living daylights out of me and putting my life and the lives of other motorists in danger. There have been ample cases locally and nationwide of tragic deathly accidents caused by texting drivers that should be addressed. The argument against a texting while driving law is that there are already inattentive driver laws on the books. If these laws are not being enforced, then perhaps the laws should be changed to include texting while driving language. We all managed to live and drive without cell phones and texting in the past. These electronic devices are crutches for busy people, but should not be allowed in vehicles if they endanger others. The same for police and ambulance drivers…in those cases, make sure a second officer or paramedic is in the vehicle to handle the reports so the driver can concentrate on the roads. Recently, a commercial jet strayed off course and failed to answer urgent messages from control towers, because the pilots were focused on laptops not airline safety. Fighter jets were almost dispatched to determine if the plane had been hijacked. It seems that common sense has been replaced by textability. Time to reverse the pattern to save lives.

The tea baggers in the Idaho legislature will see this as an infringement on freedom. It won’t pass.

Is there data published as to the increase in traffic accidents due to texting while driving? Not studies showing it may be more dangerous. But actual hard data showing causation. Has there been an increase in traffic accidents and deaths in the last ten to twenty years that has been caused by texting? If you text or talk on a cell phone and drive just fine, not harming anyone, why would it be against the law?

To leave me alone: if you can drink and then drive just fine, not harming anyone, for years and years … why would that be against the law?

Think about it.

Not too long ago in Caldwell a school bus full of kids had a head on collision with a kid who was texting while driving on his way to CHS. The kid doing the texting is dead and his family is mourning their loss. That’s enough study for me. You can’t drive a ton or more of steel and plastic down the road and be fumbling around with a stupid cell phone and not put other people’s lives in jeopardy. I don’t care if the person texting gets taken out or ends up a quad..it’s the other people who deserve a break from the politicians who can at least give the cops some tools to slow this dangerous activity down. Yes, slow it down.

I don’t expect a law will stop it but I will settle for a slowing down of this stupid activity while driving.

Parents can also have some much needed influence here as well. Texting while driving = loss of phone.

The penalties for texting and driving ought to be right up there with DUI’s for the self-important people who can’t control their bad behavior while driving.

All you people complaining about the police need to get a grip. Don’t you think the information cops get on their computers might be a LITTLE more important than your “OMG, I can’t believe she said tha about you at the club” text message?

Not to mention the fact that police are trained to multi-task and if they can’t do this safely they are weeded out. I sure hope all you that want to further delay police responses don’t complain when they don’t get there fast enough to solve your petty little problems.

EDITOR NOTE–Content of the message is not the issue. I know of no “training” that allows even coppers to look in two places at the same time. No call is so important as to not get there or cause “collateral damage.”

Back in the “old days”(before there were MDT’s in cars) coppers would get dispatched to a call with all kinds of information. Address of the call, subjects name, weapons, etc. While driving quickly to help these people, coppers had to write down all this info on paper so they could keep track of what they were doing. This caused the copper to take his eyes off the road to write this down. At least with the MDT you can keep your head up, looking at the road to glance at the screen. I am not saying anyone is right or wrong here, just pointing out the alternative for not having the MDT.

If the message is soooooo important. Pull over to the side of the road. I can’t think of many roads and streets where the shoulders are not there to park if necessary.

Cops pull people over all the time on the interstate construction zones. Flat tires happen at any time for anyone.

No need to drive and do the thumb dance on your phone. You could even turn the phone off while in the car and call people back once parked. Every call is not an emergency, in fact very few amount to more than a pinch of manure in the scheme of things.

hey untamedshrew,
you need to answer the question you just asked. DUI should be punished severely if it causes harm or damage to person or property. There should no laws enacted or enforced that make criminals out of people who do not harm others. It’s really not difficult to understand that concept. BTW how’s the DUI laws doing in cutting down on DUIs?

Sara, tea baggers or tea partiers, as seen on TV are anti-government, anti-tax fanatics, and by that definition, fit many members of the Idaho legislature who were elected by anti-government, anti-tax fanatic Idahoans, who think that the very existence of government is an attack on their personal freedom.

I’ve never heard the other definition provided above by cyclops, since I’ve never been in prison. You see, quite often, on TV, a photo of a woman at a rally wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat with more than a dozen tea bags hanging from her hat – tea bagger seems to fit.

Tea baggers, DUI’s ? Getting way off point folks. Getting personal too. C’mon guys, take it easy and stick to the topic at hand.

Re: Texting

Most cops I’ve seen do park on side streets to write their reports, although I’ve seen exceptions of turning on flashing lights in the middle of traffic for no known reason, confusing other motorists. In the case of paramedics, there are always two, one drives and the other writes the report. I don’t think anyone, including public safety officers or politicians, should be exempted from inattentive driving laws any more than they should be exempted from drunk driving, murder,false arrest, harassment, fraud, or any other crime. NO ONE should be immune from the laws. NO ONE is any more important than anyone else. A uniform or title isn’t a license to harm others. Again, as I’ve written before, we need to stop engaging in “hero worship” and hold everyone who breaks laws accountable.

watch out james bond, untamedshrew might want a law against being “mesmerized” while driving and for you to be “punished severely…because the potential for harm is great”

So, if there is no difference between police driving and the general public, where are all the police wrecks while texting? They drive something like 70-80 thousand miles a year. One would think they would have a wreck a week if they are all texting and reading computers all the time.

EDITOR NOTE–They DO have mishaps. Dept. policy is to report any damage to cars in excess of $25. We don’t need to saddle them with a records request, but suffice it to say, #$$%& happens. Most often it is bumping a curb-type thing or other minor incident. Sometimes they cross the center line… There isn’t often a conflict with other vehicles because as mentioned in comments here, others see the big white stallion and avoid it (marked patrol car).

People who text while driving should not be cited or arrested. They should be taken into protective custody and held for mental evaluation. Anyone who texts while driving must be mentally deficient in some way.

And cops can listen to a dispatcher on the radio without taking their eyes off the road. They cannot read without taking their eyes off the road.