Cellphones and driving

Editor's note: Here is a sampling of readers' comments on our Monday guest editorial, "In a perfect world there would be a ban on phones while driving, however." The comments were posted on times-herald.com. -- Quote: "Drivers, especially the younger ones, are coming to think of these devices as a right and would find any attempts at effective enforcement overly intrusive." Driving is a privilege, not a right. As for rights -- your rights end where mine begin, and I have a right to a safe highway unimpeded by drunks, speeders and users of electronic devices. Question: Do police officers in cars receive training that makes them immune from being distracted while driving and using various devices? If so, where do I sign up for the training? -- But I own my vehicle, and I pay tax when I buy gas. It is a right and not a privilege. The first autos that came out were driven without licenses, which came later as a source of revenue. A cellphone is a convenience, and I should be able to talk on mine without restraint. However, texting is already banned while driving in Georgia. I don't text and drive. I have better common sense than to endanger myself and others. -- When utilizing your rights infringes on my right to safe highways/drivers, then your right is null. Only a fool texts while driving. If that fool wants to endanger his/her own life, that's fine. But don't assume you have the "right" to endanger mine. Or anyone else's. If we can't control our teenagers when they are driving and can't rely on them to control themselves, maybe it's time we raised the age for having the privilege of driving. Same goes for the elderly. They're just as dangerous as the kids. The problem is, we have come to accept highway accidents as a way of life. A price we pay for the privilege of traveling by automobile. What a foolish people we are.
-- Sorry, but you're not guaranteed the right to drive. You have to earn it and pay for it. If you get caught texting more than once while driving, you should lose your driving privileges. That's the best way to get the point across! -- I don't text, but I do converse on my cellphone on speaker phone with the phone in my shirt pocket with both hands on the steering column and my attention focused on the road. I don't see where I infringe on your rights. If I need to text, I'll pull over. I'm certainly not an endangerment to you or anyone else. I agree that texting does endanger other drivers and there is already a law prohibiting texting while driving. Driving is a right and not a privilege. We have too much government regulation to the point most people don't know the difference.

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