“I can remember driving three or four miles and having no idea what I had just done because of texting.” – Alan Peake

I can see him now, thumbing away at his crackberry:  ”Ohhhh hey guys!! I just had the BEST idea ever! Lets make a law on penalizing citiiizens when they txt n’ drive! lol!”

After he was observed last year “flying by a constituent, texting away and not paying any attention to what [he] was doing”, Alan Peake (R 137) got a much deserved reprimand from a constituent.

As a penance, Rep Peake has introduced a 111-line Act adding more confusion to our already HUGE uniform driving code.  HB 938 has over 50 co-signers, and with the packed “room” at Tuesday’s press conference, it appears that public sentiment will rule the Law in this case, and every GA driver will pay the price for his transgression.

He was joined by the Senior VP of AAA South, Rep Amos Amerson (R 9), and Rep Mary Margaret Oliver (D 83).

Here’s what they had to say, on the record, in front of the room full of reporters:

Although Peake’s bill does not exempt police officers, Amerson’s version does.

Peake weighed in on this exemption, stating it would be added to his, and that police officers receive special training in order to safely operate a vehicle while using a mobile device;  however, in his own press release, he cites a Royal Automobile Club Foundation study which found that text messaging reduced steering control by 91%.  Amerson, whose bill does include the exemption, cited the Obama administration’s new policy against mobile devices for ALL federal agents, on and off the job.

Although I do not believe that FBI and Secret Service vehicles  have actually been stripped of their on-board computers, it was cited at least 3 times in his speech…

Blackwell offered, “There is no instance where taking your hands off the wheel, where taking your mind and eyes off the road, is safe. The sooner this becomes a law, the better.”

We all know that Blackwell doesn’t make the laws, men like Peake and Amerson do, and although I’m sure AAA should be consistent in their position and lobbying against the police exemption, I doubt they will.

If 91% loss of control is unacceptable, what standard is applied to our enforcement officers, who not only use on-board computers, but often use them at an extremely high rate of speed?

If it is possible to train drivers to operate a vehicle safely while texting, why not provide special licensing to any driver who wishes to go through this training? Since the State will soon be in the business of licensing driving schools, this could be a real fundraiser in a hard economy.

In addition to citing Barack Obama, Amerson, whose bill “ups” the fine from Peake’s $50 to a whopping $300, also noted Oprah Windfrey’s recent show on texting while driving.  He even closed his statements by quoting the TV Diva: “Don’t tempt fate,” he said “the text can wait!”

Despite such statements from Amerson, and Peake’s citing a study which showed that “97% of people agreed that text messaging while driving should be illegal.” everyone supporting this bill was quick to point out that this was about public safety, not public sentiment.

Rep Oliver stepped up to offer her one and only reason for supporting this legislation: her 16-year-old granddaughter isn’t allowed to, so noone else should be either. When asked what other of her family government issues she would like to see the State adopt, she said “alot of them” but would not get more specific than that.

She went on to tell a reporter that the child’s parents track her text bill against when she’s driving to be sure that she complies with their rule.

This does raise the question of how this bill would be enforced: If a driver appears to be texting, or reading a text, how would the officer meet the burden of proof? Intercepting that message? Confiscation of the device? If they are looking at a time stamp, how would they go about proving that the driver was reading a text message, as it could be stored on my phone from an earlier time?

I have an iPhone. I use the iPod feature on it… just like any mp3 player, or car stereo. It just happens to be on my mobile device (BTW, an iPhone and an iPod Touch look exactly alike).

AAA says “hands free calling” is no safer for drivers, so one would assume this bill would be expanded to cover talk to text, a new feature on said iPhone. So, if the officer observes a driver talking, does that represent probable cause?

There are a host of other issues with this bill: All licensed drivers in the State of Georgia should know that if they cause an accident, they face certain consequences- up and to vehicular manslaughter, all of which has been used very effectively against drivers who have been shown to have had a reckless disregard for public safety.  Police officers and motorist alike know that if an officer observes you driving “recklessly”, he can detain you on the spot, certainly, since that is the officer’s discretion, agencies and officers can already, “in the interest of public safety” make texting stops fit the criteria without any new laws.

So, is this new penalty redundant?  Is it anything more than a tax?

In one section of this bill, under exemptions, there is provision for the driver to operate a mobile device from a vehicle “while the motor vehicle is lawfully parked”.  Will the State provide parking spaces along our interstates, so that drivers can comply with this bill?

That some assume that just because they were issued a drivers license by the state and know how to operate a FCC regulated instrument on a state maintained highway inside a vehicle that meets or exceeds NTSB regulations does NOT mean we should be employed in enlisting armed gunmen to harass those foolish drivers into a modicum of wisdom.  In our cash strapped economy, our government should be shrinking, not adding new $50 or $300 fines for NOT HURTING ANYONE (yet). Certainly texting while driving is dangerous behavior, just like driving while fiddling with the radio, eating, talking on the phone or to the kids in the back seat, but do we really want to go down this road?

Personal teleporters are a LONG way off, but they may be the only way to move about freely under such legislation and it’s ultimate end.

The mere “potential” to do harm should never be a reason for a new civil government restriction.

This entry was posted by Rob Miller, on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Life & Liberty and Tagged: AAA, Amerson, driving, Georgia, law, motor vehicles, Peake, texting
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