Editor, Times-Union: There is an epidemic among us and it is growing quickly. Texting, dialing or even just handling a phone while driving. At first, I thought it was just a motorcycle thing. I ride motorcycles a lot and always seemed to have at least one incident a week where someone pulls out in front of me, or starts to, or changes lanes on me or comes across the centerline at me. But over the last six months, I have had these happen to me in my car, and especially the last one – coming across the centerline and then swerving back. I started looking and these people are messing with their phones. Some even blatantly with it on top of the steering wheel thumbing away at it. I have a plan to stop this by making it impossible. We get Congress to enact a requirement upon all phone manufacturers to utilize the GPS in the phone, and if the phone is moving 5 miles per hour or more, disable the keyboard. With the keyboard dead it is impossible to text and drive. This would not interfere with “hands off” phones linked to cars, and one can receive and make calls without taking their eyes off the road. The function would be just to disable the keyboard. Nothing could be so important that one can’t pull over somewhere and deal with their little dilemma. I have started a petition on “We The People” website to push Congress to look into this. The rules are this: The petition is published privately and must get 150 signatures within 30 days to then be open to the public. Once open to the public, it must get 100,000 signatures to force a response. I need everyone that agrees with this to go to the link and sign, get your friends and relatives to sign. The link is wh.gov/iduxB This takes you to the petition. On the right is where you add your name, email address and zip code. This is to prove that you are not a robot or spam. I need all the help I can get. This is my second attempt. The first only got 13 signatures. The life you save might be yours. Glenn Bundy Burket
