Essay (Consists of three parts)

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Jeremiah T. Sheridan

Professor Telstoynitski

MLA Research 1401

17 November 2011

Texting While Driving: A Deadly Dilemma

When Gary Golatas climbed into the passenger seat of Allyson P. Smitter’s sports car on

the morning of July 4, 2011, he had no idea that she would be taking him for his last ride.

According to an article in the Terlingua Daily Express, Golatas, 17, and Smitter, 18, had planned

a holiday excursion to festivities in nearby Appaloosa County. Six months later, it was no

holiday when a Kiva County grand jury indicted Smitter for vehicular homicide (Buck A1+).

Witnesses testified that Smitter was texting while driving along State Route 90 on that July 4.

She went into a skid while trying to avoid a van attempting to make a left turn in front of her, but

she slammed into it. Golatas was killed, as were two young children in the van. The children’s

mother and driver of the other car, Daniella Simpson, was seriously injured, is now paralyzed,

and “sentenced to spend the rest of her life confined to a wheelchair” (Kingman 111). This

tragedy might have been avoided if the United States had a national law prohibiting texting while

driving, strictly enforced such a law, and established stiff penalties for those convicted of

breaking it.

Texting, statistics prove, is not only rising but creating problems on the nation’s

highways. In the United States, texting increased from 9.8 billion messages a month in January

of 2009 to 99.4 billion in January of 2010 (Bandelier 28). As quoted in “Time for a Change,”

researcher Alan M. Tercero claims, “As many as 70 percent of those messages are being sent by

people driving cars” (Automotive Review Council 29). An insurance accident investigator, Barry

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G. Hulicki, says that drivers using cell phones were involved in 22 percent of the fatal

automobile accidents that occurred in 2011. Hulicki also cites law-enforcement and traffic-safety

personnel as predicting that this percentage could rise as much as two percent per year unless

stricter laws are enacted (Burns and Nobel 689). Despite these alarming statistics, only twenty-

nine states have laws against texting while driving. However, there is one statistic that stands

out: Those twenty-nine states recorded an astounding thirty-seven percent fewer fatal accidents

than those states without laws (Jackson 15). “These numbers,” argues National Safety

Commissioner Craig Metcalf, “offer incontrovertible evidence that laws against texting while

driving lead to safer highways” (qtd. in Kingman 112).

But are these twenty-nine individual states’ actions enough? Until there is a national

standard, texting while driving will remain a hazard for everyone on the highways. Insurance

company studies prove that texting is a problem that transcends state lines (“All Is Not Well”

99). If each state has different laws, can they truly be effective? The answer is a resounding

“No!” according to Thomas T. Trane of the Citizens on Guard Committee for Policing

Highways. “If the other states do not follow suit,” he adds, “the federal government should step

in and make texting while driving a federal crime” (qtd. in “Deadly Consequences”). Therefore,

it is obvious that a uniform national law is needed to save the lives of texting drivers, as well as

those they encounter on all of the nation’s highways.

Trane’s view is gaining support from other lawmakers. In a 2009 interview, Florida

representative Henrietta Hangman stated, “I would be criminally negligent if I failed to support

any proposed bill prohibiting texting while driving” (qtd. in “Southern Sunshine”). Hangman,

Trane, and others claim the only answer is a federal law, such as the one proposed by Rep.

Harding R. Layman of North Dakota. Layman is pushing for a law that would ban not just

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texting, but any use of cell phones on all U.S.-designated highways and the nation’s Interstate

system (“Southern Sunshine”).

One segment of the nation’s population appears particularly vulnerable. Layman’s

proposal is bolstered by another frightening statistic: sixty-three percent of these fatal crashes

involved drivers between the ages of 18 and 24 (Curleigh, Mole, and Lari 19). A national survey

revealed that the teens themselves admit that texting is their number-one distraction while

driving (Fony). In 2010, one state, Georgia, enacted Bill 23, which prohibits those 18 and

younger from using a wireless device while driving.

But even with a national law such as the one proposed by Layman, would officers be able

to enforce it? Opponents argue that such a law would be nearly impossible to enforce, creating a

debate similar to that of the controversial 2010 Arizona law that called for police officers to

check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws and required immigrants to prove

that they were authorized to be in the country. Thanks to advanced technology, however, officers

now have a new weapon to enforce these texting-while-driving laws. Just as radar aids officers in

identifying speeders, a new device developed by Engineering Inc. checks not just a driver’s

speed but also whether or not a cell phone is in use (Adams 15).

Enacting laws and enforcing them are not enough, however, to curb the epidemic of

texting while driving. The final step to an effective solution is to legislate stiff penalties for those

convicted of texting while driving. Layman is pushing a national bill that would entail a $1,000

fine for first-time violators, a $5,000 fine and two-year loss of driver’s license for second-time

offenders, and five years in prison for a third violation. “Anyone convicted of being involved in a

fatal accident while texting,” he says, “should receive an automatic 25-year prison sentence”

(qtd. in Swanson 12).

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These are harsh measures, no doubt. But they pale in comparison to the penalties paid by

Golatas, Simpson, her children, and their families. Smitter also is facing the consequences of a

life disrupted, if not ruined, by her actions that day. If she had been aware of a stiff penalty for

her texting while driving, everyone involved might be alive today. If there is one case that stands

as a symbol of the deadly statistics of texting while driving, this is it: a glaring example of why

stricter laws and penalties are necessary.

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Works Cited

Adams, John. “New Device Detects Cell Phones in Cars.” Treasure Coast Engineering

Monthly Jan. 2012: 12+. Print.

“All Is Not Well.” Drivers’ Education Weekly 6 Sept. 2009: 95+. Print.

Automotive Review Council. Time for a Change. Stuart: Automotive Review Council,

2009. Print.

Bandelier, Adolfo. “Watching Out for You.” Scholarly Journal of Automotive Safety and

Security 22 (2007): 26-30. Web. 11 Feb. 2012.

Buck, Arva. “Texting Driver Involved in Fatal Accident.” Terlingua Daily Express 10

July 2011: A1+. Print.

Burns, Winston, and Clyde Nobel. Driving: Sound Principles and Practices. Fort Pierce:

Johnson Brothers Printing, 2001. Print.

Curleigh, Tom, Joe Mole, and Jerry Lari. Fatal Crashes. Vero Beach: Wilson, 2004.

Print.

“Deadly Consequences.” Driver Daily. N.p., 20 Oct. 2009. Web. 15 Jan. 2012.

Fony, Iam. “Teens and Texting: A Deadly Menace.” Driving Today. Automotive Views

and News, 17 Dec. 2011. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

Jackson, Bartholomew. “Driven to Distraction.” Treasure Coast Weekly Magazine 17

May 2008: 15+. Print.

Kingman, H. L. “Looking Down the Road.” Teen Driving Journal 7.4 (2009): 111-112.

Web. 18 Feb. 2012.

“Southern Sunshine Blotted by Deadly Shadow.” West Texas Trailways. N.p., 4 Feb.

2008. Web. 15 Mar. 2012.

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Swanson, Alicia Madilyne. “Cell Phones and Cars: A Deadly Combo.” Okeechobee

Journal of Byways and Driveways. N.p., 7 Feb. 2009. Web. 24 Feb. 2009.