Obama has declared war on driving while using cell phones! Driver distraction based accidents are becoming an epidemic. In the last year, over half a million people were injured and 6,000 were killed due to driver distraction. This includes talking on cell phones and texting.
Obama’s war on cell phone usage while driving…
Eighteen states have passed laws making it illegal to text while driving, while only seven states have banned driving while talking on a cell phone with no hands-free device. California is one of the states banning both, and yet I see people talking on their cell phones all the time. Texting isn’t as easy to spot, but I am sure a lot of that is going on as well.
Perhaps Obama ought to start his war on cell phone drivers with some of the famous, high profile people in the spotlight. California Governor Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver, was spotted in October 2009 by TNZ.com while talking and driving. The video was subsequently posted on the Internet. (How embarrassing for Arnold!)
Will Obama be any more successful with this campaign than with the seat belt law? We can only hope! It IS dangerous to drive one-handed while talking on the phone. Some argue that even using hands-free devices makes driving and phoning hazardous. For that matter, having a screaming kid in the car is far more distracting to me than talking on the phone. Can we ban that as well?
Should the federal government or the individual states be responsible for passing and enforcing the ban on cell phone driving? Do we want more big government control? Will it be effective without severe punishment? What do you think? More cell phone laws?
Both sets of circumstances (Text Ban while driving and a possible text ban while walking) already are in direct violation to several existing federal laws. These state bans passed as laws are already rendered illegal due to not being in direct compliance to federal laws since voice communication via “Hands-Free” is allowed. This creates an inaccessible accommodations violation of federal laws for the 52 million people with disabilities that use text communication.
Such a ban on texting cannot be implemented without a total ban on voice communication because people with disabilities who use texting as an accessible accommodation in both personal and professional communication due to laws such as the ADA, Telecommunications Act of 1996, Telephone Act of 1934, etc.
Those who cannot use voice due to disability use text messaging, instant messaging, and emailing as their alternative accommodation.
Such bans were done in past history such as the Milan Conference of 1880 where they banned sign language and triggered the Eugenics War against Deaf and Hard of Hearing people were done. During the war, the hearing population purposefully separated Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals from marrying each other in attempt to extinguish the disability. This is no different than Hitler who had six million Jews killed during World War II.
A national Class Action lawsuit against the US Government is in consideration due to current bans in 19 states (so far) that directly violate federal law. This is to attempt to prevent a second Eugenics War in our country.
Source: http://deafness.about.com/cs/featurearticles/a/milan1880.htm
[...] is the solution? Obama is leading the crusade against cell phone distraction. (See my blog post Obama’s war on cell phone usage while driving…) Oprah is asking for pledges to stop texting while driving on her website. Perhaps with more [...]