It's a reliable rule of thumb, validated by a colleague from Baton Rouge, that anytime your state ties with Louisiana for anything, it's bad news.
According to a survey released last week, Maryland and the Bayou State are tied for No. 4 among the 48 contiguous states in the percentage of drivers who send text messages while driving. The survey, commissioned by the software firm vlingo Corp., found that in both states, 36 percent of motorists say they drive while texting.
Only South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee have a greater percentage of drivers with the confidence, skill and courage it takes to simultaneously navigate more than a ton of metal through our streets with fingers fluttering over a tiny keyboard.
Oy vey.
Part of me wishes I'd never seen this survey. It's daunting enough to get out on Interstate 95 or the Beltway without knowing there's a better than 1-in-3 chance that the person whose SUV is closing in on your rear bumper is a practitioner of DWT.
But perhaps it's better to know so we can take defensive steps - such as increasing our life insurance coverage. (Don't look for escape to the north or south; Virginia and Pennsylvania are right behind Maryland at 35 percent.)
The survey is particularly timely because it comes just a couple months after the General Assembly turned down a proposal to ban DWT - as New Jersey and Washington state do. Somehow, the folks who pass on our traffic laws couldn't get their heads around the notion that driving while texting is more than a wee bit more dangerous than chatting on a cell phone.
Give credit to the Maryland Senate, which passed Montgomery County Sen. Jamie Raskin's bill by a thumping 26-21. But the measure died in a House committee. Sadly, it will probably take a well-publicized, in-state multiple fatality to convince legislators that DWT is a problem here.
Dave Grannan, chief executive officer of Cambridge, Mass.-based vlingo, said Maryland's high rank in the DWT Derby probably reflects a high percentage of young professionals and college students. Nationally, the survey shows that more than half of drivers under the age of 29 text-message while driving.
Grannan's company creates the software for devices that convert voice messages into text, so it could be argued that he has an interest in showing high levels of DWT. But overall, the survey squares with other studies showing DWT to be a growing problem.
