Editorial: Want to die? Text and drive

Starting July 1, it officially became illegal to text and drive in Virginia.

The penalties of the new law are light — $20 for a first offense and $50 for subsequent ones. They will be hard to apply: One can only be cited if first pulled over for another offense.

So, will the new law actually impact anybody's behavior? We don't know, but even if it doesn't, we want to make an appeal to your common sense.

Automobiles have become as ordinary as grass to most Americans. Driving is commonplace and taken for granted. The fact that only a short time ago in human history, the internal combustion engine wasn't even a dream is mostly overlooked. Driving, for most people, seems as natural as walking.

But it's not.

Think about it. Driving on 95, you are often hurtling down the road at speeds well in excess of 50 miles per hour. Close by — at times, as close as this newspaper is to your face — another car is doing the same thing.

The only thing that separates you from the sickening sound of crunching metal is your ability to keep your car driving straight and react to whatever movement your fellow road warriors might make.

And, as we all know, in this road rage engulfed area, your fellow drivers aren't always that concerned with avoiding collisions; often they seem more interested in getting where they are going quickly, rather than getting where they are going safely.

The act of driving is something alien to human beings. We were meant for walking — and yet we perform an incredibly dangerous act almost every day of the year without really acknowledging to ourselves the few seconds which may separate us from our end out on those roads.

With death possibly seconds away, taking one's eyes off the road to text isn't just foolhardy, it is criminal.

We need to recognize that driving isn't just a normal activity of human beings, it's a risky one; one that requires our full attention and an understanding that it is one of the most dangerous things we regularly do.

We must start treating it as such. Keep those cell phones in your pockets, folks.

Stafford County Sun editorials represent the opinion of the managing editor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on his page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily the Stafford County Sun.