It is beyond dispute that texting and driving is very dangerous. Indeed, there is compelling evidence that it is even more dangerous than drinking and driving. Further, texting and driving is illegal in New York and many other states.
It therefore was shocking for me to learn about one of the most egregious examples of this unsafe behavior. Race car driver Brad Keselowski is a NASCAR star and has over 300,000 Twitter followers. He won the first Sprint Cup Championship for Penske Racing this year, the fist ever for this renown group.
It, therefore, raised eyebrows when Keselowski decided to write and send a text in his car …. during a red flag in the AdvoCare 500 at the Phoenix International Raceway! NASCAR fined him $25,000 for this transgression and I doubt that he’d do it again. However, as a professional driver and a role model, Keselowski should have known better.
Some fans think the fine was unfair because Keselowski previously tweeted from his race car without penalty. However, since that earlier incident, NASCAR made a rule explicitly prohibiting drivers from taking their electronic devices into their cars during a race.
Don’t pull a Keselowski. Put your smart phone away when driving. It’s just not worth it.
