Enticed by brats, strudel and home-brewed beer, I made a trip to Fredericksburg this past weekend. Though I did make a conscious and successful effort not to drive while intoxicated during this trip, I did take a big risk behind the wheel.
I managed to send and read some text messages while traveling on Texas highways, something many people with cars and cell phones do on a daily basis. One observant trip around the state verified this assumption, as I saw many of my fellow drivers doing the same. But “driving while texting” has proven to be a dangerous act that needs to be addressed.
Attorney Brian Roark suggested the cause of his high-profile client, UT defensive end Sergio Kindle’s, June 24 car accident could have been texting while driving.
Public speculation has it that Kindle’s accident was actually caused by his driving while intoxicated, as Kindle was arrested for this infraction in the summer of 2007. However, given the alarming findings in several studies, Roark’s proposed explanation for the situation is not so far-fetched.
According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, texting while driving is prohibited by law in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Texas is not included in this list of states, and the only laws prohibiting texting while driving in the state apply to school bus drivers and those under the age of 18.
Further, a Clemson University study found that drivers who were text-messaging and using iPods while participating in a driving simulation drifted from their lanes 10 percent more often than drivers who weren’t. However, drivers who were merely talking on a mobile phone experienced no reduction in their ability to stay in one lane — though their reaction times were affected.
While the notion that texting whiledriving is any more dangerous than talking on the phone while driving may seem ludicrous to some, Car and Driver magazine has come to an even bolder conclusion.
The auto magazine decided to study the dangers of texting while driving. They took test subjects out of the driving simulators and into actual automobiles at real-life speeds.
Furthermore, Car and Driver went so far as to compare the effects of driving while texting to driving while intoxicated.
With editor Eddie Alterman, behind the wheel of a car with a small red light wired to the top of the windshield, the Car and Driver study tested the reaction time of an experienced driver in four scenarios: unimpaired, illegally intoxicated, reading e-mails while sober and texting while sober.
Once he saw the red light flash, Alterman took less than a second to hit the brakes while driving completely sober at 70 mph. After drinking a few cold ones to push a breathalyzer test’s results above the legal limit of 0.08 blood alcohol content, Alterman traveled 4 extra feet before braking when he saw the light.
However, driving sober while reading e-mails and sending text messages proved to slow his reaction time far more than his drinking did — making Alterman travel an extra 36 and 70 feet, respectively, before slamming the breaks.
The Car and Driver experiment raises some serious questions as to whether texting while driving is as dangerous — or more dangerous — than drunken driving and whether texting while driving should be treated in a similar manner as driving while intoxicated by the law.
With only 14 states outlawing texting while driving, it is clear that both the general public and lawmakers are unaware of the potential dangers.
Alcohol’s effects on human reactions have been well-documented through history, while text messages have only been in the public’s consciousness for a few years.
For Roark to publicly suggest that Kindle was texting rather than drinking when the accident occurred clearly indicates that texting is a much more acceptable form of irresponsibility.
And the attorney’s defense is actually based on sound reasoning. Currently in Texas, accidents cause by texting drivers would not be grounds for legal trouble — or at least the type of legal trouble driving under the influence would cause.
The Texas Legislature should seriously consider outlawing texting while driving.
Avelar is a government senior.
