> SOUTHERN INDIANA — Have patience with the texting ban



It takes time to assess the effectiveness of new laws, none more so than the texting ban that took effect last summer in Indiana. While far from perfect and a challenge for police to enforce, the law itself represented a good first step in getting the attention of, shall we say, a distracted populace which understands the dangers of texting while driving but seems unwilling to stop doing it.

The year-old law prohibits drivers from using a telecommunications device to type, transmit or read a text message or email. That’s fine, but police can’t check motorists’ phones to see if they are in violation, and drivers can still use their phones to check GPS coordinates, make calls or surf the Internet.

You don’t have to be out on the roadways for long before encountering other drivers obliviously texting away.

But let’s face it. It’s never going to be easy to judge how effective the current law has been. Police around the state have issued warnings and citations, although not in large numbers. There is no doubt the law deters some people, including teenagers, from texting or using their cell phones in a manner that distracts them from the task at hand.

Still, sharper teeth in the law or enhanced enforcement will never eliminate the dangerous practice. After all, do motorists still violate speed limits or other driving laws? Of course they do.

Does that mean the state should give up? Absolutely not.

Police are currently asking lawmakers to beef up the law so it covers all activities that can distract motorists behind the wheel. Good for them. We’ve long been an advocate for the texting ban, and we support the notion of expanding the law to cover other forms of distraction and making it a bit easier for police to enforce it.

It would be wise, however, for the legislature to take a measured approach to the issue and listen closely to both law enforcement and safety experts in devising the most appropriate strategy for the future. That won’t happen quickly. We must move forward, but a certain amount of patience and careful evaluation is required.

Meanwhile, the real detriment to texting while driving should be the potential for a traffic catastrophe that could have disastrous consequences. Such tragedies still occur far too often.

We also urge police not to be shy about confronting violators. Public safety is at stake, and the law won’t make traveling safer if it’s not observed and enforced.

— Tribune-Star, Terre Haute



Indiana’s water cleanup efforts a trickle compared to other states



  It’s not news that Indiana’s waterways are among the nation’s most polluted and most poisonous.

Nor is it a revelation that other states have put far more action and money into this critical challenge to public health than Indiana, which extols far more modest progress.

This is a state, after all, that has cut funding and staff for environmental protection despite consistently low rankings in virtually every area of water, air and soil quality.

It is a state with a long bipartisan history of environmental neglect, one whose current governor has shown open disdain for the “Employment Prevention Agency,” as he dubs the Environmental Protection Agency.

What is new is the secondary treatment given mercury and PCBs in a report to the EPA by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

While acknowledging these contaminants are a grave problem extending to nearly 1,000 waterways, IDEM nonetheless placed them in a separate, less urgent category for repair.

The agency says it’s made some progress in reducing mercury emissions from power plants and intends to develop a reduction plan for mercury and PCBs, but needs guidance and money from the EPA.

Other states have moved ahead. Other states have invested their own money in corrective measures. Other states are more demanding of the coal and electricity industries.

State and industry representatives say the situation will improve as new EPA rules take effect. These are the same rules that state government and the utilities have denounced as job-killers and electricity rate-busters.

This same EPA estimates that as many as one in 10 American women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their systems to endanger their developing children. Other studies have shown that every dollar invested in the Clean Air Act has multiplied itself in reduced mortality and improved health and productivity.

Other states get it when it comes to true value. That’s why they’re busy doing what they can rather than explaining why they can’t.

— The Indianapolis Star