Inebriated or Texting: Which Is More Dangerous When Driving?
Posted by Lawrence Taylor on July 21st, 2009Which is more deadly – driving while intoxicated or driving while texting? Ok, so….which is a serious crime and which is not?
DWT Should Be as Socially Unacceptable as DUI
Halifax, Nova Scotia. July 12 – DRIVING while intoxicated has become such a social taboo that most people recognize the acronym DUI (driving under the influence) used by police and prosecutors, and rightly so. But according to a growing body of research and empirical observation, DWT is a potentially worse hazard than DUI, and should be just as socially unacceptable as driving drunk.
DWT? That would be "driving while texting" (sub-category: driving while tweeting) — the most pernicious of a variety of distempers afflicting our culture as a consequence of pandemic cellphone addiction.
According to a U.K. Transport Research Laboratory study, commissioned by the Royal Automobile Club Foundation, motorists sending text messages while driving are "significantly more impaired" than ones who drive drunk. The study showed texters’ reaction times deteriorated by 35 per cent, and a whopping 91 per cent decrease in steering ability, while similar studies of drunk driving indicate reaction time diminishment of about 12 per cent. By that measure, DWT is three times more dangerous than DUI, and should logically be treated as severely, if not more so, both under the law and in terms of social censure…
Ongoing surveys by the U.S. National Highway Safety Administration show 85 per cent of all auto crashes and 65 per cent of all near-crashes result from distracted driving.
Laws banning texting behind the wheel are relatively rare as yet. Only a handful of U.S states have full or partial bans in place…
Hmmmm….Wonder why the folks screaming fatality statistics at MADD have been so silent? Maybe it doesn’t fit their Prohibitionist agenda?
Previously you wrote about the Michael Cyr case here in CT. I am familiar with the individual and case. He was arrested for DUI because he used a car starter to start his car even though the did not insert the key into the ignition, nor drive. The courts upheld the conviction. Under the same thought process, will we get arrested for DWT by having a cell phone on when we enter a car?
Comment by Had Enough — July 24, 2009 @ 5:27 am