No matter your age, if you’re not looking at the road, you’re a dangerous driver. Likewise, whatever else you are trying to do, whether texting, reading a map, eating a sandwich or shaving your face, is a risky distraction from driving. For those reasons, we strongly disagree with the Missouri Senate on the failure of the legislation that proposed a ban on texting for people of any age, rather than those under 21.

Although we aren’t entirely sure why the legislation failed in the Missouri Senate, we’re disappointed in the lack of consistency in this law that is clearly applicable to all people. As driving under the influence of alcohol is dangerous and illegal for all citizens, texting and driving, if it is going to be a law, should be illegal for everyone.

Although safety is the primary reason as to why we disagree with the age condition, there is also an issue of fair enforcement. First, it relegates much to subjectivity to law enforcement. How did you know that person was under 21 when you pulled them over? How did you know they were texting rather than reading a map, changing a song or whatever other multitude of activities available to a small digital device?

Essentially, the law is just asking the police officer to pull over whomever they feel like pulling over on that particular day.

In our opinion, these kinds of laws, poorly written laws open to wide interpretation, exist merely to make the statement that distracted driving is bad. Fundamentally, these laws are a waste of time and tax money, and misdirect the conversation about increasingly prevalent distracted driving to one culprit. In reality, there are many factors, cultural and otherwise, contributing to mistakes and general bad driving.

We would rather officers pull over reckless, distracted drivers for being reckless and dangerous instead of attacking a symptom of the problem such as texting through inane, unclear laws.