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Pretext? Earl, it's the Post-text I'm Worried About

*Full disclosure: I'm still feisty after yesterday afternoon, when some dude on the phone while driving an Annie's Catering nearly creamed me and my motorcycle by changing lanes without signaling.

Under new statutes, people who text behind the wheel and causes a fatality accident in Utah can be punished by up to 15 years in prison. Assuming the textor wasn't the fatality in question.

Is this a good idea?

This is a GREAT idea.¹ Not just for Utah, whose Ogden-Provo corridor along I-15 features some of the worst driving in America, but for everywhere outside of the textor's own driveway. Think about it: if you're not allowed to drive your car knee-walking drunk, if you're not allowed to drive at night without headlights, and if you're not allowed to drive while holding a phone to your ear, then why should you be allowed to drive while pushing little teeny tiny buttons and watching a screen on a little teeny tiny device? The last thing you want me to find out is that you killed my loved one because, "lol g clooney is dreamy <3."

¹ But see Earl Warren, dissenting based upon 'pretext' concerns.

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on August 28, 2009 (boomark / email).