Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
The only difference between drunk driving and distracted driving seems to be the public's view that one is somewhat okay and the other is a horrible act when they are both in fact horrible acts that can affect the lives of innocent people.
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That's just not true. If you're drunk on the roadway, your ability to operate your vehicle will be impaired until you leave the roadway or for an extended period of time until you sober up. If you send a 10 second text while sitting at a traffic light that you know stays red for 1 minute, but put your phone down before stepping on the gas, you're not a danger to anyone.
Studies like the one that photon posted demonstrate that texting while your vehicle is in motion is just as dangerous as driving drunk, and I'd love to see the punishment for that be just as severe. The study does not, however, say that all use of a cell phone while behind the wheel is dangerous. Changing the internet radio station on your phone is no more distracting than changing the FM radio by turning the knob. Entering an address into the GPS app on your phone is no more risky than entering an address into the Garmin that's stuck to your windshield (though that shouldn't be done while the vehicle is moving in either case).
If you want to do away with due process, at the very least, you need to only do it when the law is narrowly tailored to deal with the problem. That's not the case with cell phone driving laws, which are almost always overly broad. This might stand a slightly better chance of holding up in court if cell phone driving laws required (for example) that a police officer witness a driver holding a cell phone for at least 3 consecutive seconds while the vehicle is in motion, but that's still a slippery slope in eroding the right to due process.