In 2010, a Youngstown, Ohio, man was struck by a car while on his morning walk. The man later died as a result of severe internal injuries, and soon after his family learned that the 19-year-old driver who hit him had been texting.
The driver admitted that she had not seen the man that morning because she had looked down at her cellphone for about 10 seconds while sending a text message. But texting and driving was not illegal in the state at the time, so the driver was charged with misdemeanor vehicular homicide and was sentenced to just 45 days in jail.
The man's family was upset with the sentencing and immediately began lobbying for a change in Ohio's laws. In August 2012, it became illegal for all drivers to text while operating a motor vehicle. But many advocates say that law still doesn't go far enough.
The advocates argue that like drunk driving, texting while driving is a choice that people make, so they should be punished more severely when they cause serious accidents. One advocate for laws against texting while driving said that while drunk drivers are normally sentenced 15 years in prison or longer for causing fatalities, texters usually only get a slap on the wrist.
In fact, new research suggests that texting while driving is six to eight times more dangerous than drinking while driving because of the attention it requires. A Kansas University cognitive psychology professor said drunk driving has been associated with a 400 percent increase in crash risk while texting while driving has been associated with a 2,300 percent increase in crash risk.
The daughter of the man who was killed in the pedestrian accident agrees. She said texting while driving "has the same end result, but the consequences are so very different because our legislation hasn't caught up with the technology."
Do you agree? Should people who text while drive be treated the same as people who drive drunk?
Source: Rock Center, "Texting drivers involved in serious and fatal crashes get 'slap on the wrist,' say victims' families," Sarah Koch, Deirdre Cohen and Nina Tyler, Jan. 8, 2013