Sunday, May 24, 2009
Texting While Driving The Budget
Senator Steven Baddour, the Senate chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation was recently quoted “This generation clearly doesn’t get it. It’s not the same as talking on a cell phone.”, while discussing the Senate’s reasoning for including a “budget” amendment that would ban writing and reading text messages while behind the wheel. Well guess “what’s up” Mr. Senator, you and your colleagues “clearly don’t get it” because talking on the cell phone IS the same thing as texting. Sure, we can all go through the semantics by stating that you obviously have to look away from the “task at hand”, driving, in order to text, but let’s be realistic they’re both distractions. Quite frankly, the Senator’s quote is the best argument yet, for NOT imposing a ban at all.
The cell phone ban, no matter what form it takes, is simply another method of placing the responsibility of generating revenue in the guise of safety. This latest infringement on individual freedom isn’t unlike the seat belt law, that I’m sure will soon become mandatory in Massachusetts. Once seat-belt laws were passed in any form, supporters returned each legislative session to lobby for amendments, such as including all occupants, increasing fines, eliminating exemptions, and changing to primary enforcement. More than a dozen states that are considering making the switch to primary seat-belt enforcement laws need to do so before July to be eligible for millions in federal money. What is “primary” enforcement? Primary enforcement is when police can stop a motorist merely under suspicion of not using a seat belt. Presently, individuals can’t be stopped just for not wearing the seat belt. Naturally, fines will be increased also.
If you ask anyone whether seat belts save lives they will probably tell you yes and that’s because the media has done a good job of reporting that fact every time someone dies that isn’t wearing their seat belt. Our legislators do a good job of getting media personalities, such as Jeff Larsen, on their side of championing “good causes”. Congress adopted the federal incentive program in the 2005 federal transportation bill as a way to encourage states to adopt the primary seat belt enforcement law. The goal was to save lives, reduce insurance costs, and cut medical bills. Since that time the federal government has doled out millions of dollars to the states that were able to coerce the public into thinking that they were acting on the part of safety and saving lives when, in actuality, it has always been about money.
Over the past ten years seat belts may have saved thousands of lives but there has never been any unbiased accounting of the statistics. The truth is that insurance and medical costs continue to rise along with the vehicle fatality rates. More people die with their seat belts on than those not wearing seat belts. Proponents like to manipulate statistics to reflect their cause and use examples of vehicular accidents where seat belts were not used, and avoid reporting facts such as when air bags may have saved someone’s life that wasn’t using a seat belt. The reason there are less fatalities per million miles of travel is because the cars we drive today are safer than they have ever been. At a time when auto manufacturers are struggling to survive, the cost of making a vehicle ridiculously safe is probably a major obstacle in their profitability. Massachusetts is at the bottom of the list in seat belt usage, a fact that will not be lost on the media campaign for more stringent laws. What they will not report is that Massachusetts also has one of the lowest vehicular death rates. What that translates to is that you’re five times more likely to die in a motor vehicle accident if you live in Mississippi, a state with a primary seat belt law, than you are in Massachusetts, where we have no such law.
So here we are, in a recession, looking for revenue, and because of the recent trolley accident involving a driver supposedly using a cell phone, rather than using the opportunity to champion better training and education of public transportation drivers, legislators and media have conveniently blamed cell phone usage. Two major trolley accidents in less than year were caused by driver immaturity, lack of proper training and insufficient qualifications, not a cell phone. The media will hammer away at the public, just as they did after Jerry Williams successfully had the seat belt law repealed in the mid 80’s, and congress will sneak the amendment into the budget, just as they did this week, and before you know it newspapers will be reporting how many people died while using their cell phones in order to justify generating money for the commonwealth and the insurance companies.
Cell phones do not cause accidents. Distracted people cause accidents. An August 2003 report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety concluded that drivers are far less distracted by their cell phones than by other common activities, such as reaching for items on the seat or glove compartment or talking to passengers. Police need only be more aggressive in citing drivers for any and all stupidity behind the wheel, rather than singling out the cell phone. Reckless and distracted driving is encouraged by alcohol, immaturity, lack of training, fatigue and ignorance. Money should go towards educating and training the public as to these dangers of reckless driving. In lieu of producing laws that not only restrict freedom but diverts law enforcement from its more important duty of making us safe in general, legislators should concentrate on more creative means of generating income.
POSTED BY STAN at May 24, 2009
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