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Texting and Driving Research Paper

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Texting and Driving Research Paper
No State Left Behind: Laws Against Distracted Driving In Idaho and as a Nation The majority of the people in the world don’t intentionally put themselves in dangerous situations, yet tragedies occur every day. Each year a motorcycle hill climbing competition is held in New Plymouth, Idaho called the Big Nasty Hill Climb. On September 19, 2009 my sister’s best friend Lacy Fine set out for a day of fun with her cousin Brittani and her cousin’s boyfriend Carlos to watch the hyped up event. She’s never been the most cautious person because her attention span is that of someone with ADHD or a stereotypical airhead. I say this with love in my heart, because she was literally a part of my family and would never purposefully hurt someone. I can assume from knowing Lacy better than almost anyone that on that Friday she was animatedly singing loudly to the radio or retelling a funny story with voices as usual. Her focus wasn’t on the task at hand of driving and she missed a stop sign coming down a hill and crashed into another truck. None of the passengers were wearing a seatbelt. The man in the truck was uninjured and Lacy was life-flighted with severe injuries, but both of her passengers were killed instantly. The two of them had just had a baby, which added to the unbearable amount of grief that Lacy and the rest of the family faced. On August 4, 2010, nearly a year after the fact, Lacy was charged with two felony counts of vehicular manslaughter and after pleading guilty received two misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter and two misdemeanor counts of inattentive driving (Masters 2). Gossipers at our high school all had the incorrect first assumption that the accident was due to texting while driving, which makes a statement in itself about how common of a practice it is by teenagers. Lacy’s horrible inattentive driving record with multiple minor accidents, holds evidence to the theory that teens will continue to practice poor habits until severe enough


Cited: Abel, Glen. "Idaho: Cell Phone Laws, Legislation." Idaho Text Messaging Laws. 2008-2011. Web. 05 Apr. 2012. <http://handsfreeinfo.com/idaho-cell-phone-laws-legislation>. Callegari, John. "Rep. McCarthy, D-Mineola, Pushes for Handheld Phone Driving Ban." Editorial. Long Island Business News 23 June 2011. EBSCO. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. Copeland, Larry. "Despite the Data, Teens Missing Message on Risks." Editorial. USA Today 20 Sept. 2010. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. Hoffman, Wayne. "Texting Ban Creates Legal Enigma for Idahoans." Idaho Press-Tribune. The Idaho Press-Tribune, 2 Apr. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. Masters, John. "Meridian Woman Pleads Guilty to Crash That Killed Two People." KTVB.COM. 4 Aug. 2010. Web. 05 Apr. 2012. Mohn, Tanya. "Oprah 's No Phone Zone Day." NewYorkTimes.com. The New York Times Company, 30 Apr. 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. Russell, Betsy. "Otter Signs Idaho Texting Ban into A law." Spokesman.com. The Spokesman-Review, 6 Apr. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. Smith, Ben. "Legislation Creating National Standard for Distracted Driving Laws To Be Introduced in Congress." Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy. 23 June 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.
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