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Editorial


The old red Subaru wasn't doing more than 50 mph on Interstate 93 through Tilton Saturday afternoon, and the driver was having trouble staying in his lane. A drunken driver so early in the day? No, just a case of texting while driving. His fellow drivers maneuvered around him with a combination of frustration and worry.

Remarkably, motorists of all ages seem to think they can safely take their eyes off the road and their hands off the wheel while driving, focusing instead on a tiny screen and their urgent gossip or social planning.

Texting while driving is a new and serious problem. A dramatic Boston trolley accident caused by a driver text-messaging his girlfriend this month drew new attention to it, but it wasn't the first such incident. Last September, a train operator in Los Angeles was texting just before the crash that killed him and 24 others. A year before that, a Massachusetts boy was killed by a texting driver.

Do drivers really need a law to tell them to pay attention? Apparently so.

The Boston trolley crash, which sent dozens of people to the hospital and caused nearly $10 million in damage, has sparked new interest from previously skeptical New Hampshire senators in legislation banning text messaging while driving. Existing state law prohibits negligent and distracted driving, but it clearly hasn't caught the attention of texting drivers - in part because distracted driving is considered a secondary offense. That means drivers can't be stopped by the police unless they're suspected of a more serious offense.

The new proposal would ban texting and typing on laptop computers or other electronic devices while driving, and the violation would be a primary offense - allowing the police to stop drivers for texting alone. Violators would face a $100 fine.

The House has passed the bill, and last week the Senate Transportation Committee recommended unanimously that the full Senate follow suit. We hope it will. Changing drivers' reckless behavior is difficult, but when it endangers others, it's critical. A new law will help create an atmosphere of public disapproval. An education campaign from the state Highway Safety Agency would help too.

And yet . . . it's hard to fathom why the Senate would jump so quickly on this legislation and take such a nonchalant attitude toward a much older and equally deadly problem: drivers who take to the roads without wearing seatbelts.

New Hampshire is the only state without a law mandating seatbelt use for adults. The House passed such a bill this year, but the Senate tabled it, as if after all these years there was still some question about it.

Seatbelts save lives. The steep medical costs related to injuries sustained by drivers who don't buckle up are borne by all of us. We encourage the Senate to think again.