2008 January | French Vanilla Iced Coffee

Recently in Massachusetts a 13-year old boy was hit by a car and was killed. He was walking down the road at 1 am with some friends, apparently having snuck out of the house without permission. A man was driving down the road and struck him and drove off, thinking he hit a mailbox he claimed.

The next morning he turned himself in. He claimed he was doing a text message and didn’t see the boy he hit before he hit him.

So, now they want to ban text messaging while driving. Some states make it illegal to use a cell phone unless it’s hands free when driving. One state made it illegal for you to smoke in your car if you were driving with your children.

Let’s legislate human behavior, shall we?

First of all, you can smoke around your kids 24/7 but if you go in the car and smoke, it’s not allowed? Second-hand smoke is dangerous. But, you can take your kids to a place where others are smoking and it’s ok?

Why is it ok for an adult to drink in the house with kids? Why not make that illegal, too? After all, an adult could do something stupid with kids in the house, right?

Text messaging while driving is just stupid. I rarely even use my cell phone when driving. If I get the urge to make a phone call, I pull into the nearest parking lot. If my phone rings and the conversation will be more than a few minutes, I do the same. Of course, one day 3 years ago I was driving through the town and pulled into a parking lot, not paying much attention to what type of establishment it was. A few weeks later a couple of people mentioned they saw me at a bar in the middle of an afternoon. I guess a redhead in a 1966 Mustang is easy to spot. So, I had to explain that no, I wasn’t in the bar, no, I don’t drink, but I had to make a phone call.

I see more people eating in their cars than talking on cell phones. Let’s make it illegal to eat in the car, shall we? After all, you take your eyes off the road to dip your French fry into the ketchup, take your eyes off the road to inhale the sodium and fat-laden burger or to triple-dip your oversalted chicken.

You can’t legislate human behavior. People are always going to do something stupid.