Classmate's Blog

In one of my classmate's blog, Shaina writes an article called Senators Seek a Ban on Texting and Driving. A legislation was introduced into the Senate that would give states up to 2 years to ban text messaging while driving or face a 25% loss in their highway funds each year.

The author supports passing this law, primarily by some statistics. It was found that truck drivers are 23 times more likely to get in an accident while texting than while not doing so. Also, the author expresses shock when finding out that texting while driving is just as dangerous as driving while intoxicated. I fully agree with the author. I, too, have been texting while driving and agree that this is very dangerous and distracting. The author says that "distracted drivers account for almost 80% of all crashes in the United States." If texting while driving becomes illegal, surely the number of distracted drivers, and ultimately, the number of accidents will decrease.

Issues like these are usually dealt in the state government but this is not the first time the national government tried to enforce laws to the states. Congress did the same thing by threatening to withhold federal highway funds when it pressured states to raise the drinking age to 21 years old. However, as cell phones have been growing in popularity in recent years, texting while driving has become a problem. I believe the national government is applying pressure on states with good reasons. Even after passing this law, enforcing it will be pretty difficult since it is hard to catch someone who is texting while driving. Additional laws should be made to enforce this law, but as of now, I agree with the author that the government is on the right track.