DWT - Driving While Texting - New Method for the State to Get More $$$! What do you think?.....

Should driving while texting be a crime?

Sending and receiving text messages has joined talking on a cell phone as a dangerous distraction for drivers. State legislators are taking notice.

During the morning rush hour on Dec. 5, the 53-year-old driver of a blue Dodge Caravan was traveling north on Interstate 5 outside Seattle when he took his eyes off the road to scan an e-mail on his BlackBerry, the State Patrol says. And that's how he hit the white Mazda, which clipped the green Honda, which rammed the black Toyota SUV before spinning into the other lane and plowing into a city bus. Nobody was seriously hurt. But the episode sparked a chain reaction of a different sort in the Washington State Legislature in the form of a bill that would make it a crime to "operate a motor vehicle while reading, writing or sending electronic messages."

Forget DWI. The big new traffic-safety issue is DWT: Driving While Texting. In Oregon, pending bills would provide fines -- up to $720 in one of them -- for any driver caught texting or holding a cell phone to an ear. And in Arizona, a bill is pending that would make DWT a ticketable offense.

DWT is an extreme version of a whole new class of modern "distracted driving" issues lawmakers are wrestling with as electronic devices become an ever more important part of people's lives, in and out of their automobiles.

Driving while talking on cell phones has gotten the most legislative attention. Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, California and the District of Columbia outlaw the use of handheld phones while driving, and 38 states are currently considering 133 bills that would regulate their use behind the wheel, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Reading and typing in traffic few driver distractions seem quite as frighteningly intrusive as attempting to read and type messages while weaving in traffic. A study conducted by Nationwide Mutual Insurance that was released this year found that 19% of all drivers -- and 37% of drivers between the ages of 18 and 27 -- text message behind the wheel.

A study conducted by the state of Washington in 2006 blamed "driver distractions" for 7.5% of the 50,000 reported accidents during the first nine months of that year. Of that number, the study said distractions prompted by "operating a handheld communications device," including text messaging, came in fifth, statistically in line with the grab-bag category of "driver interacting with passengers, animals or objects." But police in Washington say not a day passes when they don't see a case of DWT, and that the statistics may not reflect the extent of the problem. Many wrecks have an undetermined cause, and DWT data rely on driver honesty. Current state law gives drivers little incentive to blab. The reward for honesty is a ticket for negligent operation of a vehicle, which draws a flat $538 fine. The only way to independently determine whether the devices were in use is cumbersome. Police would have to get a warrant to subpoena billing records. But it would be hard to talk a judge into granting such subpoenas for a fender bender.
Courtesy of the WSJ