Older Iowans Endorse Driver Texting Ban

So will the Iowa Legislature take action next year to ban texting while driving? Maybe. Probably. 

But the issue was tomahawk slam dunk for the Older Iowans Legislature. Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson has the goods:

“I followed a young lady on (the Interstate) Sunday on the way down here,” (Older Iowans Legislature House Speaker Blaine) Donaldson says.

“She was text messaging and her speed was varying from 55 to 70 miles an hour and you didn't dare pass her because she was weaving all over the road - and this is dangerous.” Members of the “Older Iowans Legislature” have voted to make a ban on texting while driving one of the priority issues they'll ask state legislators to address in 2010.

And while older Iowans were clearly telegraphing their displeasure with recklesss texting, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood will  convene a D.C summit on distracted driving. From NPR:

Safety concerns were highlighted by highly publicized public transit accidents caused by distracted operators, including one in California that resulted in the deaths of 25 people and one in Boston that injured 62. Both operators were texting. And this summer, a video that graphically dramatized the dangers of texting while driving went viral on the Web.

Eighteen states and the nation's capital now have laws that ban sending or receiving text messages while driving. Six states and the District of Columbia prohibit all drivers from talking on hand-held cell phones; 21 states and D.C. bar novice drivers from all cell phone use. Proposed national legislation would reduce federal highway funds to states that fail to ban text messaging while driving.

I predict Iowa lawmakers will race to pass a texting ban, which allows them to do something high-profile and easy without touching the cell phones they like to chat on while traveling this great state. A cell phone restriction could happen, also, but that could be a session-long slog.

The fed threat to pull highway bucks is an exercise in bureaucratic blackmail that always makes me cringe. And a texting ban is such a no-brainer, I really don't think it's necessary.