Our view: No texting? No brainer

The imprecision, she ruled, leaves doubt as to exactly what the Legislature intended when it passed the law in 2008.

The state will appeal that decision. And the Department of Law has an issue with a Fairbanks training judge who has recommended that magistrates throughout the state not enforce the law.

The bill's sponsor, Max Gruenberg, doesn't seem to have much doubt. Another backer, Les Gara, said the bill's language was left deliberately broad to account for rapidly changing technology.

The fix is easy enough. Amend the law to say clearly that sending, receiving or reading text messages while driving is illegal. Lawmakers should be able to do this easily this session.

At the same time, they should take up a sensible ban on cell phone use while driving.

Some may bristle at the notion of more government regulation, more restrictions on individual liberty. But these laws are no more strikes against liberty than are laws against drunken driving or driving without a license.

They are simply common-sense prohibitions against increasingly common and dangerous forms of distracted driving.

The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that all of the states should ban texting and cell-phone use. The board didn't do it to be intrusive or heavy-handed. The board did it because distracted driving is killing people. We have our own recent case in which police say texting at the wheel played a role in a hit-and-run death.

Enforcement won't be uniform. It can't be. Even with the law, some people will continue to drive and text, drive and cell. But the law will set a standard of behavior, with penalties for those who do get caught.

Finally, we'd like to see Alaska drivers put down their phones even before the laws are clarified or strengthened. That would be a sign that we take driving -- guiding a ton or more of machinery at lethal speeds -- seriously. There's something both selfish and witless about texting and cell-phone use while driving. It's a way of saying that "What I'm doing on the phone is more important than the safety of the people around me." Or cruder words to that effect.

The insidious thing is that we usually get away with it. Until we don't.

BOTTOM LINE: Clarify the ban on texting while driving. And add cell phones to the ban.