Amarillo Police Asking Us To Remind You To Stop Texting And Driving

Amazingly enough, the city ordinance banning use of hand held devices in the city limits didn't end the problem.

Texas recently passing a similar law statewide hasn't helped much either.  People are still texting and otherwise using their phones in the hands God gave them instead of utilizing the hands free device Wal-Mart sold them.

Amarillo Police say they are doing all they can to combat the problem, mainly though traffic enforcement.  Last year more than 1,200 drivers received either a ticket or a warning for violating the hands free law.  On the surface that may seem like a high number of tickets.  But when you consider Amarillo has over 200,000 people and at least half of them are drivers, the enforcement impart is pretty low.  I think over the last year I personally witnessed over 1,200 drivers texting, playing PokemonGo, or updating their Facebook at every intersection I stopped at.  And I didn't see them getting any tickets.

Unfortunately much like drugs and illegal immigration you can't legislate this problem away.

All to say, the Amarillo Police department has asked all us media types, to remind you civilian driver types to knock off the texting and driving.  It's the law.  Oh, and it's ridiculously dangerous.  You could die.  The only thing that trumps the law is death.