Never have, never will. But turning a whole new group of people into felons is a HUGE leap. Tickets, that’s fine. Instant go-to-jail? Not appropriate, in my opinion.
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You dont go to jail here for a DUI unless you’re involved in an accident. First offense it’s a $500 fine plus you have to attend some sort of droving school. But I’m also sure your insurance rates will rise.
Second offense might be different.
But unless you kill someone or multiple offenses you won’t spend one day in jail.
And you may be upset with start classifying these people as criminals…tell that to the 300,000 people injured every year by people driving and using their cell phones.
1out of every 4accidents in this country is caused by text driver.
Not in all states. Some take you to jail.
And what’s the basis for the 1 in 4 stat? I’m sure there are a lot, just want to know where that number comes from.
The stats I could find don’t support the 25% number. In 2014 about 10% of all deaths were blamed on ‘distracted driving’, which includes:
•Texting
•Using a cell phone or smartphone
•Eating and drinking
•Talking to passengers
•Grooming
•Reading, including maps
•Using a navigation system
•Watching a video
•Adjusting a radio, CD player, or MP3 player
So in 2014 texting caused less (probably much less) than 10% of the deaths, and now it’s up to 25%? I really need to see that data…
What if insurance companies offer discounts to people who block their own phones in their cars while they drive?
The 1 in 4 number is off of a lawyers web site, and is inconsistent with the other links you posted as far as I can tell. The government stats show 10% involvement of distracted driving (all sources) in fatalities, which is supported by your other links.
It’s a problem, but first the facts are needed before deciding what to do about it.
I said accidents. Not fatalities.
What ever the states are it’s way too high.
Texting and DUI is a purposeful act. You don’t accidentally text or drink. Doing so and driving is criminal.
I’m surprised that Texas even has DUI laws. When I lived in NY the Conservative party fought tooth and nail on any DUI laws.
It probably isn’t the case any longer, but I can recall that–years ago–it was legal to drive in Texas while swilling beer. It was illegal to drive while intoxicated, but it wasn’t illegal to engage in an activity–while driving–that causes intoxication.
Texas calls it “DWI” and the legal limit is .08%. Also, no open containers in the car no matter how sober you are.
If you get pulled over for DWI, expect to spend at least one night in jail and be around $10,000 poorer after all is said and done.
I know VA used to have a law on the books that was something like “not paying full time attention”,“negligent driving” or something to that effect, although I don’t know if it is still there. No matter, as there still are vehicular manslaughter/murder and/or others that could be used. In my opinion more laws are not the answer, actually applying the ones already in place is definitely an option that should be considered
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I’m not advocating more laws. I’d just like to see stiffer penalties for the ones we have. $100 fine for driving while texting is a joke.
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[quote=“MikeInNH, post:32, topic:96154”]
I’m not advocating more laws. I’d just like to see stiffer penalties for the ones we have. $100 fine for driving while texting is a joke.[/quote]
In stead of even heaving texting while driving charges shouldn’t they just charge the person with reckless endangerment? After all it has been pretty well documented that texting is just about as dangerous as driving drunk. Or even voluntary manslaughter, since texting is a completely voluntary act. That will make the penalties much higher than a $100 dollar fine.
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I’m all for that.
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Recently in my state legislation was proposed to make texting and driving the exact equivalent of DUI. Of course like DUI the problem will never be eliminated.
I’m all for that.
Just last week, a texting and driving tragedy happened in central Texas. If this doesn’t make authorities get serious about texting and driving, ain’t nothing going to.
http://abc7news.com/news/driver-in-deadly-texas-church-bus-crash-was-texting-witness-says/1831976/
Just my personal view but I have always been against church buses just because of the risk of accidents such as this. I understand its nice to have everyone together but when there is a crash, you kill lots of kids all at once. I focus on church buses because they have less trained and experienced drivers, are not used on a daily basis so maintenance may be lacking, and are not brand new units like normal school buses.
Now OTOH, why do we expect law enforcement to solve this problem? It is a cultural problem in my view. The ones to focus on to prevent these accidents are your kids, your neighbors, your co-workers, your family members. They are the ones killing people.
I don’t know, so many people swear they can do two tasks at once, maybe others can’t but THEY can. Maybe it takes a long public awareness campaign like DUI. It wasn’t that long ago that you could drink WHILE driving as long as you weren’t drunk in my state.
A less tragic incident happened right in front of our place of business. Our forklift driver ran out of propane and while getting a new tank to put on the forklift, some kid ran into it with his dad’s truck. It wasn’t like it was in the middle of the street either, it was actually on the shoulder of the street, much like a parked car.
