Monday, December 20, 2010

No Texting and Driving

Texting while drivingImage by mrJasonWeaver via Flickr
Speaking of texting (see last post), as of December 1st it is illegal to text and drive in the state of Wisconsin.  I may be figuring out how to text and do things with my new phone, but I cannot imagine ever thinking that I can text and drive at the same time.  I don't need a law to tell me not to.  But, apparently, a lot of people did.

I've always told my kids not to talk on the phone while driving, at least not for any length of time, and definitely not to text.  Of course, not being in the car with them all the time, I can't really be sure whether they're listening to me or not.  I wonder if one of these sim card spy things would have been able to tell me?  It says it can read deleted texts, but I'm not sure if it can tell when those texts were being sent and read.  If they can do that, then law enforcement could probably use some of these - because when I was talking to Beth about the new texting and driving law, she started saying there was no way the police could prove someone was texting while driving.  If someone was stopped, they'd have plenty of time to delete all recent texts.  No texts, no proof they'd done anything wrong.  That is, unless the police officer has a sim card spy that can recover those lost texts.

My plan is not to ever text while driving in the first place.  So I won't have to worry about whether or not the police are capable of recovering lost cell phone data.
  
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1 comment:

  1. I think we live in a culture where business people need to 'hit the ball over the net'. Teens consider it rude not to reply immediately to texts. Home schedules would grind to a halt without immediate communication. We are conditioned to pursue this level of efficiency but we are all supposed cease this behavior once we sit in our respective 5,000 pound pieces of steel and glass. Anyone can win an argument in a forum like this by saying "Just put the phone away" - but we can see its just not happening.

    I just read that 72% of teens text daily - many text more 4000 times a month. New college students no longer have email addresses! They use texting and Facebook - even with their professors. This text and drive issue is in its infancy and I think we need to do more than legislate.

    I decided to do something about it after my three year old daughter was nearly run down right in front of me by a texting driver. Instead of a shackle that locks down phones and alienates the user (especially teens) I built a tool called OTTER that is a simple GPS based texting auto reply app for smartphones. It also silences call ringtones while driving unless you have a bluetooth enabled. I think if we can empower the individual then change will come to our highways now and not just our laws.

    Erik Wood, owner
    OTTER LLC
    OTTER app

    ReplyDelete

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