New York Times - Nov. 2, 2009

The story that certainly drawns my undivided attention has to do with a modern problem that people are currently trying to resolve, which is driving and texting. The story by Elisabeth Rosenthal talks about a young woman, who records show was texting before the accident, slammed into the rear of a vehicle on the side of the road, driven by Victoria McBryde. McBryde, 24, was killed instantly, while Phillipa Curtis, the driver of the acting vehicle, was not hurt, but was sentenced to 21 months in prison for violating "unsafe driving" laws in Britain. There are many who believe Curtis should have received a much longer sentence, because technically what occurred was a homicide, and since the driver was in no way impared other than focusing on her cell phone. Police reports show that Curtis was not texting when the accident occurred, but that she had received a message seconds before impact, which may have caused her to lose attention for just seconds, therefore unable to see the flashing lights of McBryde's broken down car.

I think that, although this is a serious problem and should be recognized by the country's legal services, it is something that is hard to contain and even stop. Cars that move at, let's say, 45 miles per hour are too difficult for any human being to look into and deduct whether or not the driver os texting, or performing a different act, like checking a GPS system or receiving a call. There are millions of people who text while they drive, and although I think it is dangerous, I don't see law enforment being able to stop it, especially among youth drivers ages 25 and under.

To me, it seems like it would be easier for phone companies to invent new products that don't require the use of hands to text. I feel like it can be done digitally by a voice recording computer system built into the phone that can type out a voice command, send it to a friend, and relay a verbal message back to the originator. That would be easier than trying to stop the world from texting while driving, and would certainly be a lot less expensive.