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It is a topic that only gets worse in the news: Texting and driving, or texting while
driving. Andy Crouppen and Ed Herman of Brown and Crouppen are here to talk more about the
legal issues surrounding the topic. Guys? Can you?
Oh. Sorry about that. You can get really lost these days...
Texting while talking is what you are doing now. This obviously is a very serious issue,
and may states are cracking down on it now, aren't they?
Yes. And we've just become prop comics, I think. Just below Gallagher.
You know, I'm glad you mentioned it, and I want to make sure that we talk about this.
I think it is so unusual that Missouri is maybe the only state in the country who passed
a law that said texting while driving is illegal if you are under 21. It is like a rite of
passage. You turn 21, you can go to the bar and drink, and now texting while driving is
fine.
You know, my guess is that that was a way to get the ball rolling. People are very conscious
about having any kind of freedom limited, and that seemed like since it was something
that involved children, we could get on board with. But I agree, ultimately it will expand,
and we do have other laws in Missouri. We have laws that say that you cannot drive in
a careless or imprudent manner, and if you were caught texting, and it affected your
driving, they could ticket you for that right now, but the law is going to have to expand.
I think this is an issue that our firm really wants to go to the forefront with making these
sort of public service announcements, and let people know that texting and driving is
more dangerous than drinking and driving.
In Illinois, it is a different story obviously.
Right. I think 22 states have passed laws against it. My family... a lot of my family
lives in California, and you don't realize actually how much you use your phone while
you are driving until you are out there driving, because they are serious about it, they are
strict about it, and you find yourself reaching for your phone for directions, for a phone
number, not even texting or phone calls, and it makes you conscious really of how often
you are looking at it. Ed and I were just discussing beforehand how there is a big stigma
attached to drinking and driving, and everybody knows how terrible it is and everybody tries
to avoid it, yet texting and driving, time and time again there are these studies that
say it is 6 times worse than drinking and driving. You know, most people would rather
have you drinking and driving than texting and driving, and you know one other thing
that Ed mentioned earlier is that drinking and driving is usually an off-hours, late-night,
not as much traffic. People are texting during rush hour. It is much, much worse...
Speeding, absolutely...
and it is not taken nearly as seriously.
But it will be, and I can warn people now: If we are on the case of a victim, who is
the victim of somebody who is texting and driving, we are going to come at you extra
hard, and we are going to present it to a jury, and we are going to show them what was
so important that you were texting about that made it okay for our person to be injured
as a result.
Do you have such cases already.
Oh, they are starting to come in a lot. That is what brought that to our attention. Oprah
is doing her campaign now to get people to pledge to not to do it...
The no phone zone.
The no phone zone. And I think what I would like to see is the cell phone companies offer
a feature on your phone. They have in-flight modes that disable certain features. I would
like to see an "In driving mode" so that if you get a text message while you are driving,
it shoots back an auto reply that say, "You know what? I'm driving right now. I'll reply
to this when I get to my destination." That would be a simple feature.
I think that people, since we all seem to have cell phones now and we are using our
cell phones, once we are able to text, it just seemed an extension of that, but it is
hard to do, it really, really decreases your attention on the road.
It takes your eyes of the road.
For iPhone users, there is a very good app called "Dragon Dictation." It is free. If
you absolutely have to do something, have this app on your iPhone, which a lot of people
have, and it is very accurate. You can speak into it, and you still have to push a few
buttons, but wait for a stop light for that. But Ed's driving mode on the cell phone, you've
just stolen my idea for an iPhone app. I was going to retire on that.
You know, I just want to see safety. It is a very sad thing when anybody is hurt in an
accident. When it is something like this, it is really tragic.
Safety at my expense.
Hey, you know what? I'll take that, as long as it is safety.
By the way, 80% on a recent survey support a ban on texting and e-mailing while driving.
So the momentum and understanding is there.
Now the legislature has to listen to that.
Put our names down on that list.
Thank you guys. We will. So it is now 80.2%.
There you go.
So if you have a legal question for Brown and Crouppen, e-mail us at GreatDay@KMOV.com.