Keep your hands on the wheel, not a device

Imagine you’re driving with your family on a two-lane suburban road at around 50 miles an hour when another car approaches from the opposite direction. As the two cars close at a combined speed of 100 miles per hour, separated by a mere five feet on opposite sides of the painted center line, is it okay with you if the other driver is using a handheld device to enter GPS coordinates, look up a phone number, or dial a call?
Massachusetts’ Safe Driving Act basically says to that oncoming driver, “If you’re 18 or older, no problem.” The 2010 law prohibits reading or writing a text or e-mail on a handheld device while driving, but permits numerous other uses of the same device.
Is the Legislature comfortable with that mixed message?
Jay Winsten, Associate Dean and Director of the Center for Health Communication at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Read the Op/Ed published June 4, 2015 in The Boston Globe