Colorado’s governer, Bill Ritter, recently signed a bill that will ban texting while driving, starting in December when the new law takes effect.  The law also prohibits anyone under 18 from talking on a handheld phone while driving, though hands-free devices are okay.

I think this law is going to be difficult to enforce.  First of all, sure there are many people who can’t text and drive at the same time without making it quite obvious, but what about the folks who can text by touch with the phone out of sight?

(Yes, I am one who does that.  I can type out a text without looking at the phone, kind of like I’m typing this blog post without looking at the keyboard.  I can type while having a conversation and looking away from the screen, too.  That used to drive my dad crazy when I lived at home.)

I also think the second part will be difficult to enforce.  How do you tell if a driver is under 18 just by looking at them?  Or is it going to be something like the old seatbelt law, where a cop could only give you a ticket for not having a seat belt on if they had already pulled you over for something else?

I have to admit, I don’t foresee a bunch of teenagers running out and buying Blackberry accessories and iPhone accessories so that they can talk legally in the car.  Unless the police get permission to pull over every person talking on the phone who looks like they could be under 18, I don’t think teens are going to be impacted much at all!

As for the texting ban — well, I guess time will only tell how much of an impact this law has on it!

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