Letter: Distracted driving law is wimpy and ill-timed

My wife and I had one of those “near death” experiences as we were stopped for construction on the Hanford highway some years ago. A fast-approaching truck, seen in my rear-view mirror, looked like it would hit us at full speed! Fortunately, the driver looked up at the last minute and veered to the right, into the ditch and out into the desert. We’ve always suspected he was handling a very important telephone call.

The new law recently passed by the state Legislature and signed by our governor addresses this issue of distracted driving — but not until 2019. That amounts to two more years of needless and preventable deaths. I do not buy the excuse that law enforcement needs more time to get ready to enforce the law. As I drive about town, I do not sense that many people are being apprehended and fined for their use of mobile telephones. How can we believe that they will do any better in 2019 with the new law?

Perhaps someone needs to adopt this cause and frame pictures of the victims of the distracted drivers, and deliver them to the governor and the Legislature. This would be a grim reminder of their wimpy and ill-timed law.

This story was originally published May 7, 2017 at 12:42 AM with the headline "Letter: Distracted driving law is wimpy and ill-timed."