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Mount Pleasant Contemplates Texting While Driving Ban

At the Shelly Leeke Law Firm, we cannot go a week without hearing, seeing, or writing about texting while driving. The entire country is debating the issue and this includes South Carolina. Bills combating texting while driving are working their way through both the South Carolina House and Senate.

Before a statewide ban is enacted, many towns and municipalities in the state are contemplating passing ordinances to ban texting while driving in their areas. Just last week, the Mount Pleasant Town Council met to discuss banning texting while driving within the town's limits. The meeting was held on April 13, 2010 and was a place for residents of Mount Pleasant to voice their opinions on the ban.  

The opinions are all over the spectrum. Many people, like Lester Griffin of 911 Driving School in Mount Pleasant, believe that texting while driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving. Hundreds of families across the nation have lost loved ones in accidents caused by texting while driving.

Others feel that the town should wait and see what the South Carolina Legislature decides on the issue. Chris Nichols feels that "perhaps [we] would want to wait and pause, not forever, and see what the state does." Councilwoman Thomasena Stokes-Marshall disagrees, stating, "I would rather be proactive with our citizens as opposed to waiting until people are injured or killed and wishing we had done something."

The proposed ban will be tough to enforce. Councilman, John Burn says, "The police would have to subpoena records...it would be time consuming and expensive." Resident Henry Sigling argues that "when somebody's family or your child gets killed while texting, I want you to measure the cost and tell me how that equates to how much it's going to protect the citizens."

There are now 22 states, the latest being Kentucky, and dozens of municipalities who have passed laws that ban texting while driving. If the ban has worked in those areas, who's to say that it is not plausible for Mount Pleasant or the state of South Carolina as a whole.

Learn more about the DANGERS of texting while driving!
Read about the University of Utah study that found testing drivers more likely to crash.
National Safety Council estimates that 1.6 million accidents are caused by people using cell phones.
Visit our S.C. Accident & Injury Library.
Read about Oprah's No Phone Zone Pledge!
Get The South Carolina Accident Book.
Contact the Shelly Leeke Law Firm for a FREE Consultation.