As for driving while texting (DWT), there is a heavy whiff of political bullying - not to mention political posturing for the coming 2010 state election cycle - in the new law banning the practice. The target of that bullying is younger drivers.
The death of a young woman accelerated the movement to ban DWT, and her death is undoubtedly tragic. But if distracted driving is really the problem here, let's see state legislators ban eating, drinking and even talking on the phone with hands-free devices. After all, a study by the American Automobile Association found that the use of hands-free devices made using the phone while driving no safer; the problem is the distraction of talking, not the removing of one hand on the wheel to do so.
But thousands more drivers (read: voters) talk than text. And the productivity of American business depends upon people working from their cars, especially when growing gridlock forces worker-drivers to spend more time trapped in traffic.
