New law stops some but most students still text and drive

By Paul Hogan

Almost 90% of students who text and drive

had close calls and still text.

Senior Brian Steadman remembers the time, a month ago, when he was driving down Carey Avenue to his friend’s house. He was texting the friend about when he would get there when suddenly he caught a view of two mailboxes directly in his path. He thought for that split second how much money it would cost him if he crashed. He slammed the breaks and the cries of a loud screeching noise followed.


“I swerved to the side, almost crashing,” he said. Luckily he missed the mailboxes. Steadman rode off leaving a trail off smoke behind two untouched mailboxes.

Steadman is not the only student texting and driving, despite a new state law designed to stop this habit. According a recent poll by the Devil’s Advocate, more than half of BHS student drivers are still texting and driving since the new law took effect in September.

Slightly less than half of these students reported having accidents or close calls due to texting and driving, just like Brian.

Some students are wondering what it will take to unglue their peers’ fingers from the keypad and get them to start obeying the law.

“Why can’t you just wait two minutes until you are out of the car before you respond to a text message?” senior Maria Perfetti asked.

The law, however, does seem to be having some effect. Before the law, 82 percent of BHS students reported texting and driving. Now it has dropped to 54 percent.

The Massachusetts law forbids drivers under 18 from texting, scanning the Internet, or talking on the phone while driving. According to Boston.com, last year 6,000 people were killed in accidents on U.S roadways that were reported to have involved distracted driving.

As of December, 30 states have enacted bans on texting and driving. But on the whole, according to Boston.com, these bans have not reduced car crashes.

Junior Chris Cao said, “Penalties need to be more demanding or people won’t stop.” The Massachusetts law calls for a $60 fine for the first offense of texting and driving and a 60-day suspension of the driver’s license. For the second offense the penalty climbs to $250 and a suspension of 180 days. For the third offense, it’s a $500 fine and a 1-year suspension.

“There should be a 1-year suspension for the first offense, a 5-year suspension for the second, and a permanent suspension forever for the third,” Cao said.

But not every student driver is waiting for harsher penalties to kick the texting and driving habit. Senior Kiersten Merlino used to reply to texts while stopped a red light. She would never send messages, only reply. After seeing statistics and when the law came out, however, she stopped texting completely.


“We have designated texters now, when I have friends in the car, when we can’t text,” Merlino explained. Merlino thinks the law has influenced a lot of students, but she guessed that half of her friends still text and drive.

Students like Kiersten who do not text and drive rated the danger higher than students who still text and drive (8.1 vs. 6 on a scale of 1 to 10), according to the recent poll. Among students who don’t text and drive, 45 percent rated it as dangerous as drinking and driving, and 13 percent said it was even more dangerous.

“When you’re drinking and driving you have your eyes on the road, but when you’re texting they’re not,” Junior David Taranto noted.

Students who still text and drive are much less alarmed about the dangers. None of these students said what they did was more dangerous than drinking and driving, and only 37 percent rated the two as equal.

Junior J.J. Connell said he didn’t think any law would stop students such as these from texting and driving.

“They do not want to get caught,” he said. “They are going to try to hide it more but won’t stop.”