Story Published:
Feb 8, 2010 at 11:00 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Feb 8, 2010 at 11:19 PM CDT
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- About six different bills in the Missouri Legislature this session would ban texting behind the wheel for everyone in the Show Me State. Since last Aug. 28, driving and texting is banned for those who are 21 and younger.
Some lawmakers say texting should be banned for everyone because it's just as dangerous as drunken driving. We examined that claim and came up with a surprising result. We used a practice driving course at Prime Trucking.
Two KY3 employees helped us compare drunken driving to texting-while-driving. Kristy Schiebel and Drew Douglas first wore goggles that blurred part of their vision, making them feel as if they were drunk.
"I'm wondering if I can even do this honestly," Douglas said as he got ready for the driving course.
Sitting in the backseat during the tests, Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Dan Bracker evaluated their driving.
"There's no defensive driving whatsoever," Bracker said. "He makes wide sweeping turns like he's impaired."
As you might suspect, the goggles turned our sober drivers into road hazards.
"You hit a cone," said Bracker.
Next, they drove with the goggles off but their cellular telephones in their hands. First, they received text messages.
"I would look at that, yeah; not respond to it, but I'll definitely look at it," said Douglas.
"It's an addiction," said Schiebel. "It's hard to not want to look at that."
"I don't do it a lot. I thought just holding my phone up actually helped out," said Douglas.
We asked our drivers to send a text message to another phone while driving on the course closed to traffic. Right away, Schiebel got way off course and had to get back.
"Onto the road; you're off in somebody's yard!" said Bracker.
Her car's engine surged and then dropped off. Her speed went up and down as if it was a roller coaster.
"Wrong side of the road," said Bracker.
Texting-while-driving didn't go much better for Douglas.
"I'm watching his eyes while he's texting. He spends more time, his eyes spend more time on texting than he does on the road. He will text, text, text, take a quick look, and text some more," said Bracker.
"He's on the left side of the road. Hello!" the trooper said.
Riding in the car with our two test subjects, we found something a bit surprising: a texting driver may be even more dangerous than we thought.
"Texting is just as dangerous if not more than driving while impaired," said Bracker.
"I felt more in control with the goggles on because I was still able to have my mind focused on one task," said Schiebel.
"She absolutely cannot text and drive. She was all over the road," said Bracker.
"You hear about that stuff all the time and think, 'This is not going to happen to me,' which is what I think. I thought i was pretty good at doing both at the same time but that's apparently not the case. That makes you think," said Douglas.
"These texts are not important. I'm guilty, we're all guilty, we've all received them and thought, 'I can do it.' We can't do it. It's going to catch up. It's a Russian roulette. We're just spinning the gun and absolutely putting it to our head," said Bracker.
On the practice course, only the cones took the hits. Others do it for real.
At a recent Senate hearing on one of the texting-and-driving bills, no one spoke out against a universal ban. If one of the bills does pass, the ban likely would go into effect on Aug. 28 unless an emergency clause is inserted, which would mean it would go into effect as soon as the governor signs it.
For information on a group promoting texting-while-driving bans, click here.
