One of the Stories on Slashdot today is "US Agency Blocked Cellphone / Driving Safety Study". This sounds like some sort of big Government cover up to protect big wigs in some industry. The numbers however, just don't pan out. In fact, the numbers on the Anti-Texting side, are actually pretty flimsy.
They enjoy tossing out a statistic that there are 1000 fatalities a year in texting while driving incidents. This may sound like a lot, but, its a number without context. To make sense of it, lets ask another question: How many driving fatalities are there every year?
That answer was easy to find. It was on a page on Drunk Driving Statistics where we see the answer. Last year, there were 41,000 driving fatalities, 16,000 of which were "Alcohol Related".
In 2005, 11% of fatal crashes involved a person over 65, that is about 4 times as many as texting at around 4000 fatalities. (Each fatal crash must have at least 1 fatality, so this is actually giving the older drivers the benefit of the doubt).
It is pretty plain to see that this legislation is nothing short of an attempt by the Insurance Lobby to generate a new Windfall. More tickets means more surcharges. Are they going to scare you into paying more?
Well lucky for them, they don't have to. They just have to convince the legislature of it. The legislature that will see their own coffers increase directly from the fines from the tickets.
Sounds like these texting bills are really a big Win for everyone involved, don't they?
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