Hang Up and Drive

Jacy Good is a young woman who was living an ordinary life before a tragic accident occurred. The accident made her unable to move the left side of her body, took her months to recover, and left her an orphan. Her husband Steve has been supporting her since the accident happened.

Ever since Jacy recovered from the accident, she started a program called Hang up and Drive. Steve has also been helping her with that program. Jacy has been able to share her story and her program with many people including our school. She has also been able to share her story on Oprah and has also been on the show Say Yes to the Dress. Along with her program, Jacy has been trying to pass the law of no phone use while driving specifically in her hometown, Pennsylvania. As of today, Pennsylvania has a law that forbids texting while driving; however, it is not illegal to talk on the phone while driving in that state.  States and US territories besides Pennsylvania also have laws that pertain to phone use while driving.

When looking at the raw data, 13 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin islands all prohibit hand-held phone usage while driving.  The states that apply this law to all drivers are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Washington, West Virginia, and Oregon.  Vermont is implementing this law as of this October.  All other states either have not prohibited hand-held phone usage while driving, or the law only applies to those drivers 18 to 20 years of age (e.g. Arkansas) or below 18 (e.g. Georgia, North Dakota).  A more specific one, Texas, only prohibits the usage in school crossing zones.

Besides just hand-held usage, it can be assumed that for the states listed above that they also have similarly strict laws regarding the usage of phones otherwise (since you can’t really text someone if you don’t have your phone in your hand). There was one thing that was more interesting than the hand held ban, though: only 44 states with the addition of D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands, have a ban on texting while driving.  Arizona and Montana still have texting legal while driving, and in Oklahoma learner’s permit holders, intermediate license holders, school bus drivers and public transit drivers are not permitted to text while driving.  The remaining three states have similar rules to Oklahoma, more specific than generalized to the entire population of that state.  In summary, 20 states and D.C. have the all cell phone ban on school bus drivers and 37 states (and D.C.) have bans on cell phones for teenage drivers.

Outside the individual states, our country as a whole has made several motions to end the use of phones while driving.  Pertaining to truck drivers and bus drivers, the U.S. Department of Transportation passed a law prohibiting texting while driving.

It’s obvious that there’s a lot of things that distract people when they’re on the road; at this point in time, the biggest distractor is our cell phones. Too frequently do they beep, light up, ring, or buzz in our presence, sometimes during conversations, sometimes when we’re on the wheel.  While many states have taken the step forward to put it in their best interest to mute the presence of phones in the driver’s atmosphere, some states have not yet gotten that far.  Until then, in the words of Jacy Good: Hang Up and Drive.

by Steph Wetzel and Leena Sen