Common sense may not always be common but it can still exist where it is encouraged and allowed.
When the young people in Maidstone began to call their SADD chapter students against distracted driving instead of drunk driving it made perfect sense and it opened a dialogue about some things so new they were without a code of ethics. Texting hadn't been around for very long, but it was already proving to be dangerous and the members of the group wanted to make sure their peers were thinking sensibly.
The young people were the first people I knew who figured out and used the instant telegraph-type short messages to communicate and I know some didn't realize how much of their focus was being taken up by the small device at their fingertips. I've watched people text someone only a few feet away and I've seen finger speed a translator or court reporter would envy.
Living just a short distance from a provincial border means sometimes the laws are different and as they changed in Saskatchewan I wondered if they would change in Alberta as well. I often watched license plates and behaviour near the border to see if there were any differences and I still see people talking on phones and texting wherever I go.
I think texting is probably the most dangerous of all distractions as it requires both the hands and the eyes to be away from the road at once and I know I don't have the co-ordination for it.
Recently Alberta has introduced even tougher legislation and although the signs have been posted there are still those who haven't put down the devices. I'm not sure I agree with all of Alberta's new distracted driver rules. There will always be distractions. Unless a person has no children, or anyone else in the car there is the risk of being distracted by conversation or interaction. The outside world offers a plethora of distraction but I don't see anyone handing tickets out to rutting deer or dusty sunsets.
Sometimes I wonder if the bubble has become too protective and people need to be trusted to use their brains. I think about eating and taking a sip of a drink. Sure, they may be slight distractions, but if a salt craving or a tickle in my throat can become even more distracting for my brain than the almost automatic action of lifting hand to mouth.
I have a picture in my head of a sterile, silent driving compartment separated from the rest of the vehiclein a concrete colourless world, it would probably be the only way to keep me from distractions. Then the only problem would be keeping me awake.
