There's No Way to Enforce a Texting While Driving Ban

Reader Comments
Back to article

Why would I be reading MapQuest directions on my Palm Prē?
I forgot MapQuest even existed until I read this article (on my Palm Prē).
If anything, I'd be using it to as a GPS device b/c it has more up-to-date maps than my TomTom.
Back to the topic; what about my company-issued Nextel.
I "chirp" and drive all the time. I have to for work.
if I had to pull over everytime the office wanted to talk to me, that would be even more dangerous.
And both my Prē and the iPhone have fancy touch-screens.
Am I holding my phone, or doing something to it?

roneyii of IN 3:44PM October 14, 2009

80% percent of all rear end collisions (the most frequent vehicle accident) are caused by driver inattention, following too closely, external distraction (talking on cell phones, shaving, applying makeup, fiddling with the radio or CD player, kids, texting, etc.) and poor judgement. I doubt if we'll be able to stop the madness so I got one of these sparebumper.com

Krystal Kid of MN 12:21PM October 14, 2009

Balko's article was really persuasive, but when I saw:
"Read why a law is absolutely necessary, by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York"
at the bottom, I was rock-solid sure Balko MUST be right.

Henry Bowman of AZ 1:17AM October 14, 2009

First, police can't issue subpoenas, only courts of law can do that. They would need a warrant for the phone records, and they would need probable cause to get that warrant. This is probably something that could be done, but like others have said, there are already laws against reckless driving. Someone who caused an accident because he was texting has already broken the law.
Also, how exactly would the "secondary violation" idea work when, as Radley said, there's no real way for an officer to tell what exactly a driver was doing with the phone?

Rhayader of NC 4:58PM October 13, 2009

Just as trying to enforce the requirement that all passengers in a car wear seat belts, this law may be a secondary offense - only charged after a motorist is pulled over for another moving violation.
Maybe after an accident, if the police believe one or more of the drivers was texting, the police could get a subpoena to review the driver's phone records to see if they were indeed texting at the time of the accident.

Tom Woolf of NC 2:12PM October 13, 2009