I've been very careful with horn use ever since.

@Trai_Dep:

Darn, you too?

Seriously, I use to read the morning paper on my long communte.

I drove into the back of the 18 wheeler.

Fortunately he was not stopped and I was coasting in traffic.

Stopped my bad habit.

They just need to add an enabled-by-default feature that before activating the microphone, it informs the other party that the user is driving and the call-time is limited. Then auto-hangs up after a warning that the allowed call-time expired.
(Just an idea. :-p)

Maybe I should shove their kids up their ass. ;)

@thrlsekr:
Agreed. I can usually tell someone is on the phone just because of the way they're driving. We all survived many years of not having them available; that call can't wait until you get home? Really?

@yevarechecha:
He was driving with elbows while typing on a Blackberry? They should just impounded his car afterward. He's too stupid to have one.

@pecan 3.14159265:
Agreed. In my job I review MVRs all the time. The more detail on them the better. "Unsafe driving" tells me very little about an offense. Driving While Texting on an MVR would be fairly clear.

@AgentTuttle:
They are cops and are, therefore, above the law.

@GitEmSteveDave_@Gmail.comNeedsAWaveInvite:
LOL. You lost me at hello. What are you talking about?!?

@HogwartsAlum:

+1. It's so friggin' annoying in theaters. We're at a point where we don't go to see anything remotely popular, at least not until it's been out for a while. The lack of movie etiquette is astonishing to me.

@pecan 3.14159265: We finally agree on something. States should set the law. My reason is because the states are supposed to set the laws. States gave the federal government it's powers, not the other way around.

Only the states can know what's best for their citizens. The federal government has no business meddling in local law enforcement matters.
That said I would support such a law at state/city level.

Can't say how many times I have had to react to a driver on the phone or be behind one on the interstate in the left hand lane with no clue of the results of their actions!

Only text I enter is the password to unlock my Blackberry. Texting is turned off on my company phone though so I never really "text". I can send and receive email but I don't like doing that while driving.

"Your honor, my client wasn't texting. She was emailing and twittering."

Makes me wonder if there are any stale laws on the books out there about using a pager while driving.

It's too dangerous to text while holding a cup of coffee and the morning paper.

If you don't mind, whereabouts do you live?
(I try to avoid areas like that like the plague.)

@MinorAnnoyance: I don't see the logic in being against a ban on texting while driving. This is something that affects everyone. Either you're a driver, a passenger, or a pedestrian who can be affected by this. Texting while driving doesn't benefit anyone, and is an action that can potentially harm a ton of people.

@h3llc4t has a slow work day: On Criminal Minds, they get information and addresses via text all the time.

Incidentally, my state (Maine) recently instituted a "Driving While Distracted" law; it doesn't come right out and ban texting, speaking on the phone or putting on nail polish while you're cruising down the highway, but if you get pulled over for a violation or have an accident while doing any of these things, you'll wind up getting additional charges based on this law. I think that's a pretty reasonable way of handling it, myself, although I still try to refrain from using my cell while I'm on the road, particularly if there are cops around. Just because you can doesn't mean you should

In the case of federal employees, I think it's entirely acceptable for their employer (i.e. the gub'mint) to institute policies that disallow texting while behind the wheel when they're on company time. A number of federal positions entail access to a government-owned vehicle, and I'd say that an employee using that vehicle has no business putting both themselves and a car that's not their own in danger because they just have to fire off a text while driving. If it's that critical, pull over and send it. I don't really see this as being any different from, say, a trucking company instituting a policy that their drivers may not text or talk on the phone while driving company-owned vehicles.

@keith4298: But "unsafe driving" is the umbrella for a huge list of things like speeding to the point of reckless driving, DWIs/DUIs, etc. So the current rules would have to be amended anyway to reflect a ban in texting - adding texting to the current rules or establishing the rule separately from the current one is pretty much the same thing, IMO.

I was so distracted by just doing that extra glancing slightly to the right of my line of sight, that I passed a State Trooper driving in an unmarked car(Crown Vic), and ended up getting pulled over. I usually spot them 1/2 mile away by their grill pattern from behind me or the car shape from the front. Long story short, I did my usual announcing every move before I made it, and even though I didn't have current proof of insurance(I received a letter stamped "ID cards enclosed" from Geico a day or two after I paid my policy online, and didn't open it, but threw it in the car, which was lucky. The letter was postmarked 9/3/09, and the card inside expired 9/9/09. Since he saw me open it, and saw the postmark date, he told me to print/get a new card, and keep that with me, and let me go with a warning.), he let me go. But I KNOW it happened because I was trying to multitask, which humans CAN NOT do.

What affect does this have on liability if a Federal employee causes an accident by texting while driving? Would it make it difficult for a victim of such an accident to recover medical expenses/etc if the worker is violating a work rule?

I mean, I for one would be pissed if I were a FBI agent investigating a national crime, and was fired because rather than focusing on my job I had to worry about which state I was in and if I could SMS/MMS.

But it is not as distracting in a restaurant or a movie..
altho it should be banned in those places as well

I think every state should set its own laws because every state has its own laws regarding speeding, DUIs/DWIs, license plates, parking, etc. So why not texting while driving? If this was a federal mandate, it would still have to be adapted to every state's current texting laws, if they have them, and every state would have to re-examine its current rules anyway. So why not cut to the chase and let every state adapt the texting ban to its current set of punishments.