[monkeynotes]

Eating while driving is also a huge part of the distracted driving problem. Food also causes numerous other health problems; obesity, diabetes and so on.

If we all work really hard we can come up with dumb reasons to ban almost anything. Politicians make careers out of this sort of thing.

[mrfusion]

I always liked the idea of simply banning distracted driving. Why have the law play cat and mouse with new technologies.

[RandallBrown]

Awhile back when no texting laws were just starting out I remember thinking it was so stupid because my state (Michigan) already had a no distracted driving law.

I don't see how it's any different than eating, smoking, reading, or whatever else people do in their car that makes it harder to drive.

[jimktrains2]

Part of it is marketing. Part of it is a way to essentially double the fine by adding an additional offense.

[leetcrew]

unfortunately the law has to balance principle with practicality. it's hard to imagine a way of detecting a wide range of distracting behaviors without some sort of pervasive surveillance. would you be willing to accept a camera in your car than an LEO can tap into at any time?

[mrfusion]

That’s definitely true but why should it be any harder than detecting someone texting?

From a practical standpoint, how about if your car is weaving back and forth they Get checked out.

[leetcrew]

AFAIK, people are rarely caught simply for texting and driving. to actually catch someone in the act, a cop has to drive by at the right moment and see the driver texting. more often, sms records will be examined in a crash postmortem. if texts were sent right before the time of the crash, it's good evidence that the driver was illegally texting. I guess if the police really care, they can do the same thing after pulling you over for erratic driving.

eating food doesn't leave the same digital trail. if a person crashes or gets pulled over for driving erratically and there's half a sandwich in the passenger seat, there's no way to know whether they were eating while driving or whether they just ate half of it in a parking lot 30 minutes ago.