{"id":296,"date":"2013-04-23T15:18:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T15:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/23\/hopeful-for-a-texting-ban"},"modified":"2013-04-23T15:18:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T15:18:00","slug":"hopeful-for-a-texting-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=296","title":{"rendered":"Hopeful for a texting ban"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>I remain hopeful that the 2013 Texas Legislature will enact a statewide ban on texting while driving and that Gov. Rick Perry will sign the bill into law.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s threatening another veto, contending that a statewide texting ban intrudes too deeply on individuals\u2019 behavior. He vetoed a bill that came out of the 2011 Legislature and says he hasn\u2019t changed his mind since that time.<\/p>\n<p>But here\u2019s the question that some folks are asking: Given that the state requires everyone in a car to wear a seatbelt and given that failure to do so puts the people in that vehicle at risk of serious injury or death in case of an accident, why doesn\u2019t the same standard apply to people who text while driving their motor vehicle? What\u2019s more, given also that the seat belt law is intended to protect only those individuals in a particular vehicle, doesn\u2019t a texting ban protect <em>other motorists<\/em> as well as the offending motorist from serious bodily harm?<\/p>\n<p>Amarillo already bans texting and operating handheld cellphones while driving. I\u2019m glad the city has acted on its own. The city ordinance will stand even if Perry vetoes a texting ban law should it arrive at his desk. <\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s high time the state acts on the inherent dangers associated with this incredibly stupid behavior.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m still hoping.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I remain hopeful that the 2013 Texas Legislature will enact a statewide ban on texting while driving and that Gov. Rick Perry will sign the bill into law. He\u2019s threatening another veto, contending that a statewide texting ban intrudes too deeply on individuals\u2019 behavior. He vetoed a bill that came out of the 2011 Legislature &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=296\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hopeful for a texting ban<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}