<p>Since texting while driving impairs a driver as much or possibly more than intoxication (depending on the level of intoxication), and is just as prone to causing wrecks, should the penalty for doing it be the same as for a DUI?</p>
<p>Right now not all states have even made it illegal, and most of the ones that do you only get a ticket.</p>
<p>Doesn’t seem enough, and the enforcement definitely isn’t enough.</p>
<p>If you don’t think it should be equivalent to a DUI, what should the punishment be?</p>
<p>The penalties for TWD (texting while driving) should be at least as heavy as DUI. I rarely see a driver whom I can identify as drunk. I see TWDs every day of the week. I’ve called 911 on a few of them. I hope they were caught, and got the bejeezus scared out of them.</p>
<p>At the very least, they should impound the cell phone, just as they would any alcohol found in a DUI car. And make it very expensive to get it back.</p>
<p>What a wonderful idea - that would probably scare most kids worse than any fines they’s have to pay!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, unless there’s an accident where the phone would need to be seized as evidence, it’s not illegal to drive with a cell phone in the car . . . so, unlike an open bottle, there’d be no legal basis for impounding the phone. Too bad . . .</p>
<p>DUI penalties don’t stop enough DUIs in the first place. So texting penalties should be as high as higher DUI ones should be. No one should be allowed to use a phone in a lane of traffic, period. And to bring this back to a college angle, the penalty for being caught for a DUI or phone use while driving a vehicle if you are below the age of 21 should be suspension of your license until you are 18 if under the age of 18, 21 if under the age of 21, and one year if within a year of 18 or 21.</p>
<p>Yes - or higher. Way too many accidents and WAY too many people assuming it won’t happen to them. I saw a car last week go halfway into the next lane - what if there’d been a car there? We pulled up at a stop light. You guessed it - there was the phone… I was happy to pass them.</p>
<p>Women farding while driving is just as dangerous as texting while driving. I don’t think convictions for texting while driving should carry penalties as severe as DUI convictions.</p>
<p>How do you prove someone was texting and driving at the exact moment of a wreck? Someone might not be texting but was instead reading a text. How is that proven?</p>
<p>I agree it is dangerous and annoying as hell, but it is going to be hard to enforce.</p>
<p>Is reading email while driving the same as texting? Is entering an address in you gps while driving the same as texting? Also, are we talking about penalties for the act itself, without an accident, or are we talking about penalties if the act is deemed to have caused an accident?</p>
<p>As I said, increase all penalties for reckless driving which includes causing an accident. I just don’t personally think it should be treated as worse than drunk driving because you can easily fix the situation whereas you can’t fix being drunk.</p>
<p>But unlike an open bottle, the phone would contain evidence of the exact moment it was used. If an officer suspected the driver was texting, could he/she ask to see the phone’s recent text history? And then impound the phone – or preferably arrest the driver – based on that?</p>
<p>I’m in favor of any penalties possible. I drive the length of the GSParkway every week, and every time we have people swerving almost into us, across lanes, slowing, sppeding up, etc. It’s easy to see that they are on some sort of e-gadget, whether it’s GPS, phone, ipod, etc. They’re not putting on makeup or whatever. Those kinds of red herrings only serve to cloud what the actual, incredibly common problem is.</p>