The Georgia Senate has passed a bill banning texting while driving and it calls for a stiff fine for adults and license suspensions for teenagers. The House version of the bill calls for license suspensions if you cause a crash while texting. Although we should all applaud the passage of the bill as it may save countless lives, the cynic in me complains that driving while distracted is already a ticketable offense.I suppose though that literally telling people that driving while texting is illegal will have a more damming effect.
This legislation sadly grew out a of fatal crash involving Caleb Sorohan in December and the bill is called the “Caleb Sorohan Act for Saving Lives by Preventing Texting While Driving”.
Now all we have to do is solve the enforcement problem. My solution? Use traffic cams to take high res shots of cars and their tags from the front and rear on I-8/I75 and send them tickets in the mail. It will make for a safer world for all of us.
Option 2 is for GPS enabled phones to know when the phone is moving at highway speed and disable the texting function unless the driver is able to handle an intricate input task proving they are a passenger.
The text of the bill proposed in Atlanta by the Senate can be found at: O.C.G.A. 40-6-241 and states that a driver cannot write, send, or read a text based message.