New Georgia Law Banning Texting and Driving

The Georgia Senate has passed a bill banning texting while driving and it calls for a stiff fine for adults and license suspensions for teenagers. The House version of the bill calls for license suspensions if you cause a crash while texting. Although we should all applaud the passage of the bill as it may save countless lives, the cynic in me complains that driving while distracted is already a ticketable offense.I suppose though that literally telling people that driving while texting is illegal will have a more damming effect.

This legislation sadly grew out a of fatal crash involving Caleb Sorohan in December and the bill is called the “Caleb Sorohan Act for Saving Lives by Preventing Texting While Driving”.

Now all we have to do is solve the enforcement problem. My solution? Use traffic cams to take high res shots of cars and their tags from the front and rear on I-8/I75 and send them tickets in the mail. It will make for a safer world for all of us.

Option 2 is for GPS enabled phones to know when the phone is moving at highway speed and disable the texting function unless the driver is able to handle an intricate input task proving they are a passenger.

The text of the bill proposed in Atlanta by the Senate can be found at: O.C.G.A. 40-6-241 and states that a driver cannot write, send, or read a text based message.

Whatever says:

April 30, 2010 at 11:20 am

You’re an idiot! How are they supposed to inforce this “law?” cameras? That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard. They can’t prove that I’m texting and driving just cause they have a picture of me looking at my phone. And gps disabling? That means that everyone that can drive would need a gps enabled phone. The govt. can’t make them buy one, so that fails. The answer is it can’t be inforced effectivly. It shouldn’t even be a law. If they want to ban texting cause it’s a distraction while driving, then they need to ban changing the radio station, putting on makeup, checking on your child in the back seat, looking through your purse, eating, drinking, everything. It’s taking away my freedom for a bigger government and a revenue generating “law” that really can’t do anything.

Kelsey & Becca says:

April 30, 2010 at 12:57 pm

We think this is LAME. Putting a GPS in a phone is ridiculous.

Moderator says:

April 30, 2010 at 3:02 pm

Dear Whatever
Whatever happened to intelligent discussion in this country? Name calling is a waste of words. It sounds like your view is all laws that limit your freedom to speed, change lanes, drive while drunk should be banned because they are hard to enforce. That cannot be what you mean. Texting is a repetitive and highly dangerous activity that has been proven to kill innocent drivers. Doing nothing is not an option. Will enforcement be tough? Sure. But that does not mean you give up. As for GPS Kelsey and Becca. All smartphones are already GPS equipped. That includes all blackberries and Iphones. How do you think google maps works? A software install is all that is needed to make the GPS plan work.
The enforcement mechanisms can be tweaked but the point should remain. Texting while driving is extremely dangerous, that fact is beyond debate. Some enforcement mechanism is needed so that there is a viable deterrent effect on the driving populace. Unless you are afraid of getting pulled over Kelsey, you don’t sound like the kind of driver that will stop driving and texting.
I am open to new ideas so contribute to the conversation and provide enforcement alternatives

faith says:

May 5, 2010 at 10:32 am

i think that if you think its stupid your one of the people who text and drive and you dont want to pay tickets so your against it. I think it really is a good law that will save thousands of lifes.

eric goodman says:

July 20, 2010 at 11:39 pm

The problem isn’t texting, it’s the fact that the average person is a f****** moron and is paying more attention to something other than the road. I can easily text while driving and still pay lots more attention to the road than I am my phone. I’m capable of doing that because I realize that I’m on the road and I take a much longer time to text and focus on the phone only during periods where me not having my eyes on the road for a second (ie. not in a curve, right beside another driver, etc) and take less time during those periods than even using my car’s radio takes me.
If you want to make the roads safer, banning actions that can be done safely isn’t the way you do it. Actually trying to teach people to be smart (something our school systems still aren’t focused on cause they are too busy making sure you aren’t cheating when the average person isn’t even smart enough to cheat very well) and think about the situation and ask themselves “if something happens the moment my eyes leave the road will I have enough time to react safely when my eyes get back to the road?”. If the answer is anything other than yes then that person needs to wait until the conditions change before doing anything other than driving (this includes changing the radio, eating, whatever)