King Banian is not at all happy that Minnesota’s legislature has passed a law that would make criminals of drivers “texting, reading or sending electronic messages while their cars are on the road.” This, despite the legislature’s commissioned research [PDF] on the subject concluding crashes from these activities “represent only a tiny fraction of all such crashes in Minnesota that year—less than 0.4 percent of all crashes in each category.”
This is, I think, simply one of those cases when people are more apt to believe their own lying eyes than the evidence. Certainly, it seems like every yahoo who swerves into my lane, drives 25 mph below the speed limit in the passing lane, or otherwise makes a nuisance of himself on the road is holding a phone to his ear [or otherwise engaged with his beloved device]. And there have been plenty of anecdotal but hysterical media accounts of the “growing threat” posed by this practice.
The perception that something’s true, though, doesn’t make it so. And King’s right: The state ought to have some burden to demonstrate the risk before enacting such an infringement on people’s liberties.
Image: Car Auto News
