Anti-text bills send muddled message

We've all seen drivers who are paying more attention to their cell phones than to the traffic around them.

So it's understandable that some state lawmakers and officials, including Gov. Charlie Crist and Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Julie Jones, have jumped on the bandwagon to prohibit drivers from sending text messages while operating a vehicle.

This is, after all, a safety issue. The growing practice - especially among younger drives, who often are easily distracted - is an accident waiting to happen and should be discouraged.

But a new law to specifically prohibit texting would be an overreaction. It would put additional pressure on state troopers and other road police who already have their hands full stopping aggressive drivers, speeders and drinkers, helping stranded motorists and investigating crashes.

And unless you're foolish enough to send a text while stopped at a light next to an officer, such a law would be an enforcement nightmare.

The anti-text-while-driving movement is sending the message that the Florida Legislature should act every time a new device, fad or behavior could interfere with a driver's ability to safely and responsibly operate a vehicle.

Yet, no one is suggesting that drivers be prohibited from eating behind the wheel, putting on makeup, checking e-mails on the laptop in the passenger's seat or picking out a CD, among many other distracting activities that can be just as risky as sending a text.

Where do lawmakers draw the line? If the Legislature spent all its time regulating common sense, it wouldn't get anything else done. The state shouldn't treat all motorists like they are children.

At least 19 states have banned texting while driving, and some states restrict cell-phone use. Florida has done neither - yet. But more than a dozen bills that would outlaw texting behind the wheel have been filed for debate in next year's session. At least one bill would prohibit drivers from using handheld phones.

Studies show drivers who text or talk on cell phones are much more likely to crash than those who don't, but that's not surprising considering the user isn't fully focused on the road the entire time.

A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study determined it takes a driver about 4.6 seconds to send an "average" text. We're not aware of any similar study that calculates the risk of a driver struggling to find a location on a map.

What about a driver foolish enough to play a video game or check stocks on a handheld device? Are statutes needed to address those behaviors, too?

An issue bigger than cell phone use is the proliferation of television screens and DVD players in today's vehicles - big-time visual distracters. But Florida law addresses them: It's illegal to operate any vehicle in Florida with "television-type receiving equipment" in which the screen is visible from the driver's seat.

State law already requires motorists to operate vehicles "in a careful and prudent manner, having regard for the width, grade, curves, corners, traffic and all other attendant circumstances, so as not to endanger the life, limb or property of any person."

People who fail to do that violate the "careless driving" statute. That should be all the state needs, not a hodge-podge of traffic laws that would grow every time a new handheld gadget is created.