We've all been hearing about the alleged epidemic of youth drivers dying needlessly due to texting while driving.  It's certainly true that driving while distracted by a cell phone is a bad thing to do, much like driving while eating a cheeseburger, putting on lip gloss or even shaving on the way to work.  No one thinks it's a good idea, but can the government save us from ourselves?  Michele Malkin writes about the newest initiative that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is considering to save us.  "Making the cable TV rounds to unveil a public service announcement campaign against "epidemic" cell phone use and texting on the road, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood revealed bizarre and alarming plans on Wednesday to install devices in cars that would block a driver's ability to communicate.  "There's a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones, and we're looking at that," he says'.   Malkin notes that 30 states have implemented 'no texting while driving' laws, but are they really working.  She writes,"The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety examined insurance claims and driving habits in Louisiana, Washington, Minnesota and California, which all passed texting bans two years ago.   Its study found that when compared to neighboring states that had not yet banned texting while driving (Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi), the no-texting states actually reported higher accident rates among young drivers – while the states with no bans maintained constant accident rates."  How can this be?  It just seems obvious that more kids are dying since cell phone use became common.  Could it be that government acting as a social engineer doesn't really change behavior.  According to Malkin, "the push for federal policing of our driving habits comes just as the federal government itself reports that the rate of teenage-related car accidents has fallen. Yes, fallen. Despite increased cell phone use, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that when the years 2004 through 2008 were compared, there was a 38 percent reduction in the number of car accidents involving 16- and 17-year-olds." 

Though I haven't read through the CDC study, it certainly raises the question of the value of government intervention.  It would be interesting to know how much of our money (taxes) is being used to fund these types of studies and implement this legislation.  Maybe the Transportation Department is one place to look at when cutting the size of government?