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I think I read that same article yesterday. That's why legislation is not called for. But, I'll bet that lots of accidents are probably caused by this kind of stuff in which the offending driver is the precipitator, but not involved in, the ensuing accident - picture the woman who is swerving in her lane while putting on makeup. Another car swerves to avoid her swerve, and his swerve triggers a reaction in a third driver whose maneuver results in an accident. The accident cause never gets traced back to the swerving woman and her makeup mirror.

For the record, I'm not advocating legislation. I'm just saying that I would prefer that people didn't do it. I would also prefer they don't smoke around me either, but I'm not advocating for giving smokers tickets or throwing them in jail.

I would simply prefer that people be mature enough to realize when their actions adversely affect others, and be adult and courteous enough to modify their behavior accordingly. Obviously, the person who smokes around me and will not take measures to keep their smoke from blowing into my face hasn't a leg to stand on and object if I go over there and fart in their beer.

Similarly, the person around me on the roads who is texting while driving has no leg to stand on if I keep honking my horn loud and insistently at them until they put the phone down.

I actually wouldn't do any of those things because they are escalatory, although I might want to; but that is because I think I am a better person than the kind of person who doesn't control where their cigarette smoke goes, or who puts other drivers at risk with thoughtless behavior.

I will answer a call while driving, but I seldom ever initiate one. And when using the phone while driving, I typically either put it on speaker, or I use a blue tooth ear bud. I don't find talking on a phone, as long as it is hands free, to be any more distracting than talking to a passenger in the car. The issue isn't really whether you're talking on the phone, it's whether or not you are using your hands to drive the car or use the phone. I don't really care how good anyone is at multi-tasking, it is a very rare individual who is good enough behind the wheel of a car to multi-task while driving. In fact, I've only ever met one.

When my wife and I first met, she had just gotten her information packet from the Jim Russel School of British Motorsport Racing to spend a weekend learning how to drive a Formula Ford open-wheel racecar around (no longer existant) Riverside International Raceway in California. I was already familiar with the track from having raced bikes on it for a couple of years. During that weekend, I had the opportunity to ride with the head instructor in a little Mazda coupe as we went to various points around the track where we would pull off the pavement, and he would take notes as the students went zipping by in the little Formula cars. At one point, we went through turns 7 and 7A on the two outside wheels with the inside tires up in the air. I looked over (I was riding shotgun), and he was steering with his right hand, with his left elbow hanging out the window, and scribbling notes on the clipboard with his left hand. I think my hair stood on end, but the whole thing happened so fast, I didn't really have time to start panicking before it was over. I stammered out that I was blanking impressed, and he just chuckled and kept going. This guy was a paid factory driver for Honda.

Most people, including most active club racers, just aren't that good. I would rather they not send text messages while they're driving.