ARKANSAS, USA — An Arkansas nonprofit is working to make distracted driving laws in the state stricter with the goal of making everything hands-free.
In Arkansas, distracted driving laws differ for drivers of different ages:
- Anyone under 18 is banned from using cell phones in any form while driving
- Drivers between the ages of 18 and 21 can only use a phone hands-free
- Anyone 21 and over can talk and hold the phone while driving
Families Against Distractive Driving (FADD) said it is calling on state lawmakers to rethink this legislation and make all cellphone use in the car hands-free.
"That would be a huge help in assistance to law enforcement to get that hands-free legislation passed because that takes the question out of if you're actually dialing a phone or texting," FADD CEO Michelle Paden said.
Paden started the organization after her nephew was critically injured in a car crash. The driver of the car was texting. She said distracted driving can sometimes be worse than drunk driving.
"Studies have shown you are just as impaired, if not more than impaired, as someone who's legally drunk when you're using your cell phone behind the wheel," Paden said.
As a junior ambassador, reigning Miss Saline County's Teen Lily Overholser is helping get the word out about FADD's mission. She lost her mother in a drunk driving crash several years ago.
"Arkansas is ranked in the top 10 states for distracted driving, and I want to help with FADD and make Arkansas go down to the very bottom of the list," Overholser said.
She said there is more to be done, including spreading awareness about the dangers of distracted driving.
"We are doing the right thing, to go to classrooms and set up meetings and host events to help people and to make them understand that it's not safe to be distracted while you're driving," Overholser said.
Fort Smith attorney Joey McCutchen has also spent several years pushing for distracted driving awareness through an art contest with local sixth graders. He said the goal is to teach the children all forms of distracted driving.
"They're in the back seats when their parents are sometimes distracted," McCutchen said. "They're the ones who say, 'Hey mom, we learned this in class, and maybe you shouldn't be combing your hair. Maybe you shouldn't be putting on your makeup. Maybe you shouldn't be on that cell phone.'"
Paden said the sooner the laws are improved, the better.
"People think all the time it's not going to happen to me," Paden said. "If you believe that, then you're not accepting reality ... Lives are changed in seconds behind the wheel of a car. And in my nephew's case, goals and dreams were shattered. He's now in a wheelchair for life."
For more information about the organization, visit FADD's website.
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