“ Bystanders look at the Chevy Cavalier that collided with a stopped Colbert County school bus on U.S. 72 near Barton. Samantha Jo Stewart, 20, who was living at a house at Rose Trail, was killed on impact, officials said. She was pronounced dead at the scene by Colbert County Coroner Carlton Utley. Utley said Stewart died from head and spinal trauma. Her vehicle was crushed under the back of the school bus.” (Times Daily Feb 10 2010)
Apologies to the Times Daily for sampling their stories and pictures. But it occurs to me that if the ban on texting had passed in the first days of the senate session instead of a few self interested lawyers trying to bend the law to make a buck Ms Stewart might still be alive. There is no proof and only unsubstantiated rumor that Sam was texting when she hit the back of that school bus less than a mile from my house. Hit it at a full 65 miles per hour without any sign of hitting the brakes. It is rude to speak ill of the dead. But the facts are that the senate was deadlocked on the bill, and if she was texting or reading a text she was engaged in a completely legal activity.
You may, as my gentle reader, disagree. You may say there are already laws on the books about distracted driving. You may say the law in unenforceable. On all counts you would be correct. As correct as you would be to make the same points regarding the seat belt law. However there is another point. That point is that texting is still very much legal, as is putting on makeup, eating, smoking, and just rubbernecking around. If the behavior, the specific behavior, were illegal then the highway safety offices could develop an information campaign to warn drivers of the danger. I think we should begin a campaign of highway safety laws to begin to address the ever growing number of senseless highway fatalities.
No comments:
Post a Comment