Rock Center
Texting while driving is now illegal for all drivers in 39 states, but many experts say the laws don't go nearly far enough.
“People are getting a slap on the wrist for this,” said Jennifer Smith, whose mother was killed by a distracted driver.
Since her mother's death, Smith has helped outlaw texting and driving in many states.
"The first step is to get the act illegal, but then they have to go back and get the punishment to then fit the crime," Smith told NBC News' Kate Snow in an interview airing tonight at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.
Weigh in below on how texting and driving should be punished.
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Here is a great way to motivate teens to be proactive against distracted driving. Project Yellow Light Scholarship Competition - (2) $5,000, (2) $2,000 and (2) $1,000 scholarships awarded to the top three high school and top three college student entries. The 25 or 55 second video should motivate, persuade and encourage your peers to not drive distracted. Winning video will also be featured in a PSA campaign. Deadline: April 1, 2013. This is a memorial scholarship to honor the memory of Hunter Garner. Details and application/specifications @
driving while texting or being on the cell is as deadly as being under "the influence"
Ken Dorsey March 24 ,2012 run down while jogging by a New Canaan CT High School Student.
Charged with Vehicular homicide the charged were dropped, drunk driving?
When drunk driving laws are stricter, then maybe I will agree that text driving should have the same punishment. I have seen way too many people who have 3, 4 or 5 DUI citations and yet we keep allowing them behind the wheel. Oh yeah, there are those who have their license suspended, BIG DEAL. They still drive and still cause accidents and possibly even fatalities. Judgement is too subject to opinion ...there should be a law and that should be it. You drink you drive, you go to jail and you loose your license. Maybe these people should be required to sell their vehicles and then if you loan your car to one of these bozos you loose too! I can not imagine taking the risk at taking a life. It can happen to anyone at anytime. There are so many other choices!
It's a conscious choice to be negligent, without even the excuse of impaired judgment.
Absolutely,punishment should be as harsh as the crime,and it is a crime!
sorry, double post
I am appalled but not surprised that you can kill someone through voluntary negligence and get probation but serve years for stealing a television. We call ourselves educated and civilized yet we put a higher price on a television than we do a human life. It took decades for people to stop sympathizing with drunk drivers. We don't like laws that we know we might break so low penalties..but steal something from us and we want blood! What is wrong with us!!
I will make a sure to spread the awareness of obvious dangers of texting or using cellphones while behind the wheel.
I will pledge to my family and friends that I will never text or search the web while driving from this day forward.
I am appalled but not surprised that one can kill someone through voluntary negligence and yet serve no time but if they stole a television will serve years in prison. We took decades to stop sympathy for drunk drivers but laws that we know we could break get small penalties. It is shameful that we consider our phones more important that a human life. What a great message we send to our children...go ahead and text because if you kill someone no problem we'll keep dinner warm for you just don't damage the car so I can get to the mall! Disgusting!
When we start punishing people by making them serve time in jail, giving them a criminal record, and we make them do something embarrassing like the woman in New York that had to wear a street sign calling herself an idiot during rush hour, people will continue to violate laws because the punishment is so lean.
There's a variety of technical solution out there too. I've written an Android app, Text Soundly that will automatically detect when you're moving and read your texts out loud and let you respond by voice. Not quite as good as stopping, but no more dangerous than talking on a hands free device.
I live in a small town where parents don't seem to care about what their kids are up to- and the police are these same neglected kids grown up! On my short drive to work on a country road, almost every other vehicle coming the other direction is over the center line. The police used to fine you for that! Now, anything goes. A wonderful man I worked with was killed by a young girl because she "didn't see him" when she plowed into him with her car. She received no jail time. Judges must crack down on "accidents" caused by teenagers.
Just make all cell phones incapable of texting above 5 mph. Should be an easy app with GPS , I know, "what about the passengers"? Just a sacrifice we have to make to stop this BS....
Here's a thought... I find it troubling that when it comes to death's caused by a person shooting a gun, our government seeks to ban or impose stricter controls on guns... yet when someone kills another while texting we want to go after the person holding the phone... don't hear anyone standing on a soapbox saying we should ban cell phones???? So then why dont we use the same logic when it comes to those committing crimes with guns??? Prosecute the person not the instrument he or she uses!!!! Pass stricter laws for those who kill while texting and driving... likewise do the same for those who pick up a gun and kill innocent people... their is no difference... in the end you have one or several corpses... all because of a choice... not an inanimate object.
There is no such thing as a mistake or accident, only choices. Good choices and bad choices. If you make a good choice, great. If you make a bad choice and kill someone, if you made that conscious decision, then you understand and accept the consequences. If someone else makes a bad choice and kills someone you love or injurs you, you have to live with the consequences. It boils down to entitlement-- we feel we are so important that we DESERVE to send a stupid text message--and a lack of empathy, no one else is as important as we are. ABSOLUTELY, these people should be going to jail and doing real time.
The show failed to mention, that Dave the guy who lost all the weight was walking on the correct side of the road, wearing a YELLOW vest....an the girl wasn't even going to stop! Her friend told her she better report it....
Simple fix, just disable text features in cell phones above 5mph. Should be an easy app using GPS, I know... "what about the passengers"? It's the price you gotta pay to stop this BS.
All the new GPS phones know how fast they are going. Just disable the phone all together if it is moving faster than 10 mph. It stops the kid in the back seat from streaming porn but is that a bad thing?
After I almost ran into a concrete embankment while I checked home vmail--I'd been OOT for a week--since, I've never talked on the phone while driving. Forget texting and driving, never even tried. What is so important that it can't wait, really? If a person who's texting kills somebody I love because that person needs to "LOL", their life will be a living hell, even without my narrative. I live in SC where most legislators are nothing ninny-heads and they'll never do anything to better our laws until somebody THEY love dies. Sad, but probably true.
You can't legislate morality. So fix the phones so they don't text in the car - since the addicts can't help themselves. With technology as advanced as it is it should be an easy fix. Forget your "rights" to do as you please if you are too stupid to stop it then big brother has to help you do the right thing.
Really Rock Center? These kids aren't monsters. They are stupid, stupid, kids. But those two women were trying to make that horrified girl out to be a calculated monster. She was a dumb teenager who acted negligent. Not like any other teenager on earth, I'm sure. There HAS to be a better way to fix this problem than to fill our jails up with these scared @!$%#less teenagers. These kids still have a chance, and the legal system wants to ruin their lives.
That mother and daughter want to ruin this girl's life out of revenge and spite. She texted and drove. She killed their husband & father. She stood in the court room an utter wreck. Should she be punished, yes. Longer jail time isn't the answer though. This is a MASSIVE problem. It's huge. You can't put everyone in jail. It's the result of a societal shift and it's a terrible side effect to our mobile revolution. We have to adjust and come up with something better, not throw all of these stupid negligent teenagers in jail. We're never going to make a difference that way.
In the same segment, we were told how it's in our human nature to look at something shiny when it flashes. We can't fight that. It's in our DNA. We just need to do better instead of blame "evil". We as a culture need to adjust and find a way to solve this problem, not throw people with ADD in jail whilst simultaneously creating smaller, brighter devices and cars with touch screen computers on the dash. We're headed to demise if this is the way people are acting now. A litigious, righteous, revenge-seeking culture instead of a culture of innovation and prosperity. Come on, Rock Center. You're better than that.
You probably wouldn't say so if it was your dad who was run over by that girl. Here is my suggestion to solve the jail cell problems: how about physically annihilate that stupid bitch so that she and perpetrators like her won't have to spend a day in jail?
You're right. Let's euthanize all the negligent teenagers out there instead of getting into a conversation about developing a much simpler and less devastating solution with the tech and phone companies. Brilliant. And it helps the overpopulation issue! Hooray!
This isn't about getting justice for people's personal losses. It's about solving a MUCH bigger problem that is not going to go away unless the technology changes.
It would make a difference if the girl isn't laughing while doing her public speaking. She didn't learn her lesson. In fact she went back and got her sentence modified so she could continue her life.... Must be nice.