Washington Negligent Driving Laws Position Letter
A position letter done for an ENGL 121 class that was on the topic of amending the Washington State Negligent Driving Laws to include killing/maiming pedestrians and cyclists on charges of driving distractions, rather than just on intoxication and traffic violations. Also calls for stricter control on the Negligent Driving Laws Degree two for repeated offense.
So then, why should you or any other state legislator care about the State’s Negligent Driving Laws? Why should you care if they are amended or not? Well, for one thing, you are representing the people of Seattle, as well as King County. The function of a state senator or representative is to represent his/her district in the state legislature. If a citizen comes to you with a concern that affects a wide population, you should try to act on it. Even though it doesn’t seem that negligent driving in the form of answering a call/ texting is a problem, if the driver doesn’t pay attention and loses control, people can still be affected by that driver’s decision. Furthermore, what if that cyclist or pedestrian is you or someone who is close to you? Wouldn’t you be angry and want something to be done to prevent it from happening to anyone else in the future? That is exactly why the State’s Negligent Driving Laws need to be revised to include every day, common sense violations, so that the State can ensure further the safety of all of its cyclists and pedestrians on the streets. This can occur through the cooperation of both you, as a senator and representative of the citizens of Washington State, and the people, who can communicate the urgent need for this to come about.
Works Cited
Glazer, Sarah. “Cell Phone Safety: Do they cause cancer and car accidents?”. CQ Researcher (2001): n. page. Web. 1 Nov 2009.
Gilmore, Susan. “Tougher laws sought for drivers that seriously injure bicyclists or pedestrians.” Seattle Times 15 Oct 2009, Print.
Gutierrez, Scott. “Deadly car vs. bike accidents: Should they be a crime.” Seattle Transportation Watch. Seattle PI, 13 Oct 2009. Web. 1 Nov 2009. .
Gutierrez, Scott. “More from bicyclist club’s traffic justice summit.” Seattle Transportation Watch. Seattle PI, 15 Oct 2009. Web. 1 Nov 2009. .
RCW 46.61.5249: Negligent Driving – First Degree.” Washington State Legislature. 1997. Washington State Legislature. 2 Nov 2009 .
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Post CommentJohn Rob
On December 2, 2009 at 9:49 am
I do all my work with full attention and drive with concentration. I use drivesafe.ly mobile application and concentrate on what I do instead of searching for my phone to read text messages.