Oklahoman: Text Ban Should Get Second Chance
Measure to ban texting at the wheel deserves a chance in Oklahoma Legislature
The Oklahoman Editorial | Published: March 4, 2013
REPUBLICANS who control the Oklahoma House of Representatives don’t want to tell people how to live their lives, unless they do want to tell people how to live their lives.
On the one hand, House leaders are OK with drivers reading and sending text messages; to do otherwise would trample on their personal rights. At the same time, they don’t want to give Oklahoma municipalities the right to set their own anti-smoking laws.
The House Calendar Committee last week put the brakes on a bill that would ban text-messaging while driving. The committee can vote again in the next few weeks to send House Bill 1503 to the full House, but those prospects appear dim given Speaker T.W. Shannon’s strong opposition.
Shannon, R-Lawton, said distracted driving is already against the law in Oklahoma, and that there’s no difference between texting at the wheel and applying makeup or changing music on an iPod or shaving. “There is a slippery slope argument to be made (about) what people are doing inside their cars, especially as technology changes so quickly,” Shannon said.