Thursday, August 20, 2009

DWT -- Driving While Texting: Twice as Dangerous as DWI

Saw a post on this over at The Council of Insurance Brokers of Greater New York's blog this morning.  Every driver who drives with a cell phone in hand, especially those younger drivers who frequently text while driving, should watch these two videos.

The British Public Service Announcement video on Texting While Driving (Rated for 18+year-old viewers due to graphic content):



And from real life, comes this very powerful video from Utah:



CNN recently reported that at the end of July, four U.S. Senators introduced a federal bill that would ban truck and car drivers and operators of mass transit from texting while driving in all states.  CNN's video report is here.

New York's "A.J.'s Law", which would make texting while driving in New York State illegal, passed in the New York Assembly in June but stalled in the State Senate during the chaos of that body's most recent legislative term. 

According to several studies, a driver who is texting has twice a greater chance of causing a motor vehicle accident than someone who is driving drunk.   Is it any wonder, then, that some states have already banned driving while texting? 

If you know anyone who texts while driving, have them watch these videos to the end.  I'm sending these to my 20- and 21-year-olds to watch today.  If these don't get drivers to stop DWTing, nothing will. Click here to email this post to ones you care about.

3 comments:

zuppa said...

Great Post.

DWT should be punishable along the same lines as DWI. Unclassified Misdemeanor which is really the equivalent of an A Misdemeanor -- up to 1 year in jail; license revocation with suspension and limitation upon demonstrated hardship; and various felony bump ups for repeated offenses and accidents etc. so that in some cases it is a felony.

If you don't punish and deter these yahoos then they won't stop.

Miscreants.

lelik said...

DWT, DWI, texting it's all CRIME. People should be arrested!
zuppa - you are right, arrest, jail, and $$ fines - no other options!

Anonymous said...

It seems that "DWT" is more dangerous because it is more frequent. Not too many DWI's during the AM rush hour or even the evening rush hour.

Texters/callers are on the road all day every day.