Texting While Driving -- Is It Worse Than Driving Under the Influence?
If you’ve been smacked with a charge of driving under the influence in San Diego, chances are you won't get much sympathy from the mainstream media or from fellow motorists. After all, most of us have been hit over the head for years with the message that driving DUI in San Diego (or anywhere else) is a dangerous and morally abhorrent act. And, truth be told, statistics support the thesis that driving while intoxicated can cause drivers to be more distracted and get into more accidents.
At the same time, however, while drunken drivers get pilloried, drivers who talk or text on their cell phones don’t face nearly the same level of moral opprobrium. In fact, significant scientific data seem to show that driving while texting or driving while talking on the cell phone is as dangerous as (or even possibly more dangerous than!) driving under the influence of alcohol.
Americans have long had a love hate relationship with spirits. Our national experiment with Prohibition in the 1920s and the subsequent backlash to Prohibition, for instance, demonstrated our passionate, almost bipolar relationship with alcohol. But we have no such collective love-hate feelings regarding cell phones. In fact, our associations with cell phones are by and large positive. Thus, it's difficult for us to equate the dangers of driving while texting/calling with the dangers of driving drunk. Even though the data tell us otherwise, we think of these crimes as extremely different from one another. But the more we look dispassionately at the data, the more it seems that it's not the KIND of distraction that matters but rather it’s the FACT that we're distracted at all that makes the difference. In other words, bad driving stems from a lack of attention. The nature of the distraction -- alcohol, a text message, a hamburger -- seems to play a surprisingly minor role. When we forget that other cars contain other human beings, we make stupid and dangerous decisions.
This argument is not intended to excuse individuals who drive under the influence in San Diego of their reckless behavior. However, it does suggest that our moral outrage at DUI drivers is either misplaced or too narrowly focused. Maybe we need to outlaw ALL driver distractions, including cell phones, texting, DUI, food, and perhaps even music. The point its, our laws and policies should be based on good scientific data, not on arbitrary cultural fashions.
For intelligent, aggressive, and attentive help with your San Diego DUI matter, get in touch with Attorney Stephen R. Brodsky now by phoning 1-800-GOOD-ADVICE or by emailing him at his website, WWW.CRIMINALATTORNEYSANDIEGO.COM. With your rights and freedom on the line, you need and deserve top notch legal representation.
