Count me among those who think that accident the other day involving the texting teen who rear-ended the police car at a red light was, indeed, a pretty big deal. Notwithstanding the comments of the teen’s mom who didn’t appreciate the notoriety resulting from widespread news coverage.
The local print and electronic media, never known for nuancing the news, were correct to play it up the way they did. That’s because this is an alarming public safety issue – one that the duty-derelict Florida Legislature failed to address in its recent session.
There’s a reason why a dozen states and the District of Columbia have flat-out banned text messaging while driving. It’s because drivers, passengers, other drivers and pedestrians are all at risk when a distracted driver — and the statistics skew disturbingly young on this — is under the influence of cell-phone texting.
Until there’s an enforced law prohibiting it, expect the rate of accidents, injuries and deaths due to mindless text messaging to continue to ratchet up. In the mean time, it falls to the high-profile vehicles that are the media to remind the public — and parents of teens — of this public safety menace.
Oh, and that texting teen should have been at her school, Freedom High, when she plowed into that police car.