{"id":404946,"date":"2010-03-08T19:17:34","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T00:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011291826_distracteddriving.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-03-08T19:17:34","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T00:17:34","slug":"distracted-driving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/404946","title":{"rendered":"Distracted driving"},"content":{"rendered":"

Personal choice to live overrides cellphone freedoms<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shame on House Republicans for weakening the proposed bill to make cellphone use by drivers of any age a primary offense [\u201cDistracted driving: House of wimps,\u201d Opinion, March 6]. Their rationale is, [according to] Rep. Mike Hewitt, \u201cI don\u2019t like the government being in all aspects of our business.\u201d Rep. Dan Roach says, \u201cThe libertarian in me comes out with these types of issues. It\u2019s not a Democratic or Republican issue. It\u2019s a personal choice issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

So if I understand this careless, arrogant and tiresome rhetoric correctly, the \u201cpersonal choice\u201d of a driver to drive a multi-ton piece of metal while distracted \u2014 according to scientific research, it is a greater risk than driving while intoxicated \u2014 trumps my personal choice and that of my family, my neighbors and all Washington residents to live.<\/p>\n

There is no piece of information so important and no call so critical that justifies texting or talking on a cellphone while driving \u2014 no matter how important you think you are. The free world won\u2019t collapse if you\u2019re unreachable while you get to your destination. Face it, your call and your text message can wait, but a bill to ban cellphone use and texting while driving as a primary offense for all ages can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Beth Shepard, Kent<\/em><\/p>\n

A \u2018common-sense\u2019 law<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reading about the legislative maneuvers to all but kill a more sensible law for cellphone use while driving helped me appreciate why so many people are cynical about government.<\/p>\n

Do the Republican opponents of this bill really think we can\u2019t see through their absurd, illogical arguments? By this logic, we should get rid of drunk-driving laws \u2014 or for that matter make red lights optional.<\/p>\n

I love freedom as much as anybody, but if you want to use the public roadways, there\u2019s nothing tyrannical about some common-sense laws to protect public safety. And no one can honestly deny that driving is not impaired if you\u2019re trying to hold a phone to your ear.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rick Kosterman, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

More dangerous than drunken driving<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to ask Reps. Mike Hewitt and Dan Roach, if they have a problem with laws that make it a crime to shoot at drivers from freeway overpasses? Do they object to making drunken driving illegal? The threat to innocent bystanders from drivers distracted by texting is greater than either of those.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to tout one\u2019s \u201clibertarian\u201d instincts, but it\u2019s quite another thing to thoughtlessly take it to the extreme of turning an ideologically \u201cblind eye\u201d to behavior that clearly endangers non- participants. If this pair can\u2019t see something that obvious, one has to wonder what they\u2019re doing as lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sidney Schwab, Everett<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Personal choice to live overrides cellphone freedoms Shame on House Republicans for weakening the proposed bill to make cellphone use by drivers of any age a primary offense [\u201cDistracted driving: House of wimps,\u201d Opinion, March 6]. Their rationale is, [according to] Rep. Mike Hewitt, \u201cI don\u2019t like the government being in all aspects of our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}