Laws are meant to protect people from themselves, other people and in many cases, both.
Some laws are written with this in mind, but in reality, they cannot be enforced properly without miniature hovering cameras that could report violations, issue citations and follow people around without human operation.
A bill proposed by Sen. Dale Erdey, R-Livingston, happens to fall into this category.
Senate Bill 147 would ban operating social media on any cell phone, tablet computer or similar device while driving.
In theory, this is a brilliant idea, and we should all send Sen. Erdey a Baby Ruth and a gallon of ice cream to reward his vigilance against drivers who regularly endanger themselves, their passengers, other drivers, brave squirrels and innocent roadside vegetation.
The damages of texting, tweeting, reading, mapping — practically anything besides concentrating on the road — while driving cannot be overstated.
Most humans are terrible drivers even without a picture of a smiling cat in a goat’s lap distracting them from the minivan ahead whose driver just slammed on the brakes because she almost ran a red light while scrolling through her Facebook News Feed.
In a study of crash data collected from black boxes installed in cars, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that 99 percent of drivers involved in collisions did not apply the brakes at full force before a crash. In fact, one-third of the drivers didn’t even touch the brakes.
The issue with Sen. Erdey’s bill, along with most other laws banning any form of texting, talking or tweeting while driving, deals with enforcement.
In Louisiana, for example, it is legal to scroll through your phone while driving to look up a contact’s number. It is also legal to talk on the phone, as long as you’re over the age of 18 and not a school bus driver.
A police officer would have to drive next to the potential offender for quite some time before he or she could even make an educated guess on whether a law was being broken. Otherwise, these laws are only useful to further punish the distracted driver after a crash already happened.
But something needs to be done because many drivers, myself included, are too dumb to realize the dangerous situations they create by doing anything besides driving while driving.
And there are really only two possible solutions, neither of which include Sen. Erdey’s bill.
Firstly, laws could require automakers to install technology in cars that would prevent drivers from using their cellphone while the car is in motion. This technology already exists.
The problem with that is one, many people would be livid; and two, there are too many cars already on the road without the technology.
The better solution, and one that many people can get excited about, is to eliminate human error from the equation.
Autonomous, or driverless, cars could be available to consumers by 2025, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal.
In other words, text, tweet, talk, nap, eat and drink all you want, because you no longer have to do the driving.
It’s a little scary, and I’m more than skeptical of the 2025 “guesstimate,” but until then, the only thing that can really protect drivers from themselves is their own conscience.
And I don’t even trust my own conscience.
Ben Wallace is a 22-year-old mass communication senior from Tyler, Texas.
