Robert Scribner is a senior majoring in business. He can be contacted at [email protected].Conceptualize this: your name is Prescott Dandelion. You’re 16-and-three-fourths years old. You smoke, you drink and you’re pretty much an all-around bad ace.
You’re cruising down the highway at 115 mph in your new 2008 Pygmy Cooper, the latest in the line of all-the-rage subcompact vehicles from the British Motor Corp.
Just last week, you totaled your 2007 1-door Diminutive Cooper, and you’re looking to test out the limits of your new ride. Sounds fresh, right?
Minding your own business, you swerve across eight lanes of traffic. You hear a familiar sound: “My lip gloss be cool; my lip gloss be poppin’. Lip gloss, lip gloss, lip gloss, boyz be stoppin’!”
Your eyes immediately drop to your cell phone beside you. The display screen shows an adorable blue kitten pawing at a sealed envelope.
This can only mean one thing: text message!
You grab your phone and flip-slide it open to reveal the full keyboard and mouse within.
Your phone projects the text message into a hologram on your front windshield.
The message reads, “pull over plz, this is teh police. lol. pwned.”
You look over and see a cop stationed on the side of the road. You are the victim of a text message trap. As you pull over and await the exorbitant fine, you can only wonder what your parents would think if they found out. That is, if you hadn’t crashed into their car and killed them just last week.
For 16- and 17-year-olds in California, this scenario is an all too fictitious reality.
Recently, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill banning the use of electronic devices for drivers under 18. This even includes hands-free devices (though adults can still use these), such as Bluetooth.
The first offense carries a $20 fine, while further offenses are worth $50. California is the 16th state to pass such a bill.
I am excited to see states making a stand here. It is important to convey such a strong message to our youth regardless of how “rad” they think they are.
They need to know that it’s not OK to hold the phone in sight while texting.
It’s much safer to look down at the phone in your lap while texting. This is the responsible way to text and drive.
Responsible, as in no one will ever get caught this way, barring the advent of the above-mentioned text message trap trick.
Though I don’t imagine that this new law will be especially effective in stopping texting, it should help eliminate the distraction of normal phone conversation.
Of course, there are exceptions to this ruling for drivers that need to make emergency calls.
Schwarzenegger did not comment on what topics would constitute an emergency, such as whether or not your BFF Josh kissed Cathy at the prom last night.