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Archive for January 12th, 2008

Another state to take on the cell phone/text messaging problem on today’s highways.

Via the Washington Post:

RICHMOND, Jan. 11 — Some Virginia lawmakers want drivers to take their thumbs off the keyboards and put them back on the steering wheel while cruising down Virginia’s roads.

They are tackling the problem of drivers who send, read and write messages on cellphones, PDAs and BlackBerrys. It’s a thoroughly modern distraction dubbed Driving While Texting or DWT.

The General Assembly, which began its 60-day session Wednesday, is considering a pair of bills that would ban texting while driving a car, bicycle, motorcycle, moped or even an electric wheelchair. Lawmakers in four other states, including Maryland, are considering similar proposals.

Virginia legislators have tried in recent years to ban handheld cellphone use by adult drivers but have not been successful. A year ago, they made it illegal for teenagers under 18 to talk, send text messages or snap photos with a cellphone while driving, but they can be cited only if they are stopped for another offense.

This year, supporters say they hope to push a bill that forbids at least some cellphone use, now that drivers are doing more than just talking behind the wheel.

“I frankly did not even realize that one could do that and drive,” said Del. James M. Scott (D-Fairfax), who sponsored one of the bills. “But I learned quickly from my younger daughter, who assured me that it’s very easy to do.”

Lawmakers in several states are trying to keep up with the latest driver-distraction phenomenon by banning texting, or prohibiting all cellphone use, while driving.

In Maryland, where lawmakers also convened this week, Sen. Michael G. Lenett (D-Montgomery) has introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of hand-held phones by all drivers. Another proposal may be on the way that would cover only texting.

Texting is safety advocates’ latest worry about driver distractions, which include eating, grooming and reading newspapers. Safety experts say the practice is even more prevalent in affluent, urban places such Northern Virginia, with its extensive cellphone service.

“It’s sort of the issue du jour right now,” said Matt Sundeen, a transportation analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks bills across the nation. “I’m sure we’ll see more this year.”

Six states considered anti-texting laws in 2007; Washington state and New Jersey passed laws, as did the city of Phoenix. Five other states and the District prohibit drivers from using hand-held phones while driving.

Remember back when one of the worst distractions which took place while driving was correcting your children who were riding in the back seat. Or, maybe it was following the salesman who was attempting to read directions while driving.

Some things should not have to be addressed by legislators and courts, they should simply be a matter of common sense.

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No matter your age, a few thoughts of days gone by can produce a laugh or stir a memory.
I received the following in an email today and thought I’d share.

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn’t seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can’t remember getting e.coli

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE.. and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked’s (only worn in gym)
instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can’t recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.

Flunking gym was not an option… even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.

We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.

I just can’t recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.

Oh yeah… and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!

We played ‘king of the hill’ on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn’t sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.

Now it’s a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

We didn’t act up at the neighbor’s house either because if we did, we got our butt spanked there and then we got butt spanked again when we got home.

I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that?

We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn’t even notice that the entire country wasn’t taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?

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