WDYS?: You're getting WAAAAAY off base here. You go from one extreme to the other. Please, take the time to carefully read the entire article and think about the content and information being presented before making a comment.
These bans are for the safety of the pedestrian as well as for the the people in the vehicles. I can see a truck driver slamming on his breaks to avoid hitting a pedestrian that's so engrossed in her texting that she doesn't look to see if it is safe to cross, she just assumes that the drivers see her. Well, this causes a major pile up as one car slams into the truck, then another car slams into the car that slammed into the truck and so on like a domino effect. Those in the vehicles now may have injuries related to trying to AVOID hurting the pedestrian. The girl, being so engrossed and self-centered shouts 'I was nearly hit by a truck driver!' When the reality is, she never looked up from her phone to check to make sure the street was safe to cross. If she had looked up, she would have seen the truck and thus would have made the decision to NOT cross the street at that time and waited until it was safe to cross the street.
This is to protect drivers from such people. If there is an accident and several witnesses can and will testify that the pedestrian was in fact texting and not being alert to their surroundings, the pedestrian will be found at fault as the driver was paying attention and tried as best he could to avoid an accident in which the pedestrian might have been killed, but instead it turned out to be a 3 car pileup, with the driver of the middle car sustaining injuries that required medical attention.
It also stops frivolous lawsuits. Remember the girl that was texting and did a faceplant into the fountain at a mall? She then turned around and tried to sue the mall for sharing the event (which occurred in a public place) on the Internet and that the mall janitor did not help her, when in fact, he could be seen asking if she was OK just as she was frantically pulling herself out of the fountain and running off. It's all there in plain sight - the woman simply did not watch where she was going, she did not use good judgement in preventing herself from being in the situation she found herself in. It's funny and stupid at her own expense. Can you imagine someone running into a pole on the sidewalk and breaking their nose because they were too busy texting to look up and notice the pole? They turn around and sue the city for damages because they 'suffered a broken nose from a light pole which was placed by the city on a sidewalk some 30 years prior to the incident, which now poses a safety risk.' Does it sound stupid? Yes it does. Why? Because IT IS stupid.
This ban is to make sure things like the two mentioned above don't happen because it's a crazy world out there, and they have to keep their bases covered. Such a ban, places the blame of such incidents squarely on the shoulders of those responsible for them in the first place.
on your cellphone, but Rexburg, a small college town in southeastern Idaho, may be the first place to also ban texting while walking.
