Yeah, he was drunk and operating a deadly weapon while impaired...no big deal. [sarcasm on]
Should someone texting and driving have the same level of punishments? Sleepy driving? Talking on the cell phone? What about the other various forms of distracted driving? Should they all carry similar punishment, or are we just singling out drinking and driving because we think it's so much worse than other forms of distracted driving?
Facts about Distracted Driving:
■Distracted driving is the number one killer of American teens. Alcohol-related accidents among teens have dropped. But teenage traffic fatalities have remained unchanged, because distracted driving is on the rise. (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Study and NHTSA Study)
■While over 90% of teen drivers say they don't drink and drive, nine out of 10 say they've seen passengers distracting the driver, or drivers using cell phones. (National Teen Driver Survey)
■Brain power used while driving decreases by 40% when a driver listens to conversation or music. (Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University Study)
■More than 80% of drivers admit to blatantly hazardous behavior: changing clothes, steering with a foot, painting nails and shaving. (Nationwide Mutual Insurance Survey)
■Drivers on mobile phones are more impaired than drivers at .08 BAC. (University of Utah Study)
■An estimated million people each day chat on their mobile or send text messages while driving. (The Herald)
■41 percent of drivers admitted they had “fallen asleep or nodded off” while driving at least once, 11 percent said they had done so within the past year, and four percent said they had fallen asleep behind the wheel in the previous month. (AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety Survey)
■Drowsy driving causes an estimated 1,550 deaths a year and 40,000 injuries. (CDC Report)
http://negligentdriving.com/distracted.cfm