[mentat]

Is the goal really to prevent crashes? There is a limit on how much you're going to be able to do about any random societal ill. A friend recently linked Goodhart's Law [1] to me and I think it's relevant in this. What is the goal? To save human life? To save humans from a particular possible death?

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_Law

[ddw]

Yes, the goal is to prevent car crashes, particularly fatalities. What else could it be?

There's data and facts behind the thought. Crashes are happening because someone was talking or texting while driving.

Come on, this isn't a civil liberties issue. I'm right there with Ron Paul on the government phone taping U.S. citizens and other Patriot Act issues, but not this one.

[mentat]

Crashes are happening for many reasons. Are talking and texting the top one? Are they in fact results of other causes? Will raising fines with such low enforcement rates (as far as I've seen) actually have any impact beyond fundraising for the state?