Ok Let's talk terrifying here for a minute. Am I the only one who thinks this ban on texting while driving in Austin is terrifying? I understand it's for good reason, I do, an APD senior officer says "teens that text message and drive are 23 times more likely to have an accident."
And really, if I'm honest, I'm guilty of texting and driving, which I don't believe is safe or a good idea at all, but what I'm not so sure about is how police officers are going to enforce the new law.
The KEYE article above says officers are looking for people who swerve, tailgate, drive too fast, or people who they spot looking down. Texting and poor driving skills don't always work in conjunction. Does this law make it possible to get a ticket for bad driving habits and have texting cited as the cause because a driver was looking down? I have to look down to change my CDs or for any number of reasons besides texting.
How do they prove a driver was texting? Sure, they can prove you're texting by looking at the time on your most recent text message, but I can also delete that message in two seconds flat; Is it worth their time to look through my phone record at AT&T? I'm not wild about the APD being able to look into my text record at will either.
For a crime that's punishable up to $200 it seems severely faulty to me and kind of a waste of time on their part. I'm hoping it more of just a scare tactic than something that will actually be put into practice.
Link Pack
4 days ago
