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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Texting While Driving - Georgia Law

So, there is this new law in Georgia that states:

"No person shall operate a motor vehicle on any public road or highway of this state while using a wireless telecommunications device to write, send, or read any text based communication, including but not limited to a text message, instant message, electronic mail, or Internet data."

But I think there are some obvious holes in this...

Don't get me wrong, I agree that texting and driving is dangerous and since most people can't drive well in sunny dry conditions; except for me of course; it is a smart law to make since people obviously need guidance & direction from the government that tells them how to live safely in society.

So, I have a few questions...
1) If I am stopped at a red light, not driving, not actually "operating" the motor vehicle in question, and I send or read a text, am I violating this law?

2) There are a lot of people who rely on their GPS device to guide them to their destination because they are either directionally challenged, or in a unfamiliar town. This device is usually mounted (insert Bevis & Butthead laugh here) somewhere in the car. I, however, use my google maps app on my blackberry device, also a GPS, so if I am looking at it to guide me, am I in violation of the law? And if so, how come the people who look away from their driving to watch their GPS are NOT in violation and I am?
Doesn't seem to gel with me.

So there it is. Thoughts?

FOOTNOTE:

"Governor Perdue has signed two new distracted driving bills into law, Senate Bill 360 and House Bill 23."

What about mothers distracted by their children in the car? Have you ever ridden in a car fpr more than 15 minutes with 3 children of any age? It can be torture...

2 Comments:

Blogger Erik said...

I think legislation has value in raising public awareness in forums like this one but it will be difficult to solely legislate our way out of this issue. I just read that 72% of teens text daily - many text more 4000 times a month. New college students no longer have email addresses! They use texting and Facebook - even with their professors. This text and drive issue is in its infancy and its not going away.

I decided to do something about it after my three year old daughter was nearly run down right in front of me by a texting driver . Instead of a shackle that locks down phones and alienates the user (especially teens) I built a tool called OTTER that is a simple GPS based, auto reply app for smartphones.. I think if we can empower the individual then change will come to our highways now and not just our laws.

Erik Wood, owner
OTTER LLC
OTTER app

7:17 PM

 
Anonymous Joshua's Law said...

It's very hard to monitor the cell phone usage while driving for all of the vehicles, so the best bet is either we need to encourage the people to use alternative technology solutions to do the same task without any distraction or put cell phone jammers in place to stop the people to use cell phones on drive.

8:32 AM

 

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