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posted by Brent Hugh at 5/17/2009 10:09:00 PM
 A law passed last week by the Missouri General Assembly bans texting while driving--but only for those under 21 years of age.The sponsor of the bill, Senator Ryan McKenna, has vowed to address the issue again next year to make the law apply to drivers of all ages. McKenna's original bill applied to drivers of all ages but changes were made as the bill moved through the legislative process. According to a Post-Dispatch article: The Missouri bill's sponsor, Sen. Ryan McKenna, D-Crystal City, said he had seen many people come close to crashing because they were texting while driving. Restrictions on talking on cell phones, texting, and other similar distractions while driving have been proven to lead to many of the injuries and fatalities on U.S. roads and highways. Restricting texting while driving is one of the issues supported in MoBikeFed's legislative platform.
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I think this is just one of those times when a compromise of some sort was needed to get the bill through.
Once it is in place and everyone sees that it works well, doesn't cause any terrible problems, and people support it, then they'll remove the age restriction.
It's just a case of getting the nose of the camel in first and then the whole camel will follow soon afterwards (or we hope it will, anyway!).
Not that you shouldn't say what you did--in fact I'd suggest emailing your comments to Sen. McKenna, who sponsored the bill. Link below.
Web link: http://www.senate.mo.gov/09info/members/mem22.htm
"Chris wrote: 07/17/09 08:02am • 168.166.80.229
This law is so stupid! Are they going to ban eating, applying makeup, reading, talking, or navigating while driving too??"
The total control has to start somewhere subtle and small... Very similar to what they are doing with firearms. Right to bear arms well the average citizen can’t legally own a fully automatic weapon, last I check it is classified as an arm and not a weapon of mass destruction.
But I have noticed that the younger generation is really good at texting while doing other things... I noticed a younger kid skateboarding down the street while texting on his phone... I can barely text and drive and I'm twenty-one. The things kids can do these days
If anything, the older people should not be able to text instead of the younger generations. I am biased on this, because I am a 19 year old college student, but it seems to me that the safest people to be texting while driving would be the ones who are the best and fastest at it.
This law prevents those of us who take three seconds to create and send a text from doing so, while allowing people who take five times as long OR MORE to complete the same act.
Tell me how that makes our road safer?