KCET Reporter Texts While Driving, then Drives Drunk... For a Story, Of Course

Photo by stevendamron via Flickr

As highlighted in today's TV Junkie column, KCET's SoCal Connected premieres for its second season tonight. And in our humble opinion, it is the best TV investigative journalism you can find in Southern California. We watched a little sneak peak of tonight's episode about texting while driving and found it fascinating.

Journalist Vince Gonzalez explores how bad texting while driving can be, finding that it can actually be worse than drunk driving (with the eventual blessing of the insurance company and corporate, he did test drives in a private driving field, under close supervision with a helmet and not on city streets). Now, that's not to say drunk driving isn't terrible, against the law and horribly dangerous. Simply put, don't do it. And as as Gonzalez notes, you can put down the cell phone, but you can't get sober in a manner of seconds.

Nevertheless, it's fascinating to look at how studies prove how dangerous texting while driving can be while juxtaposing it to state laws. Many states do not even have texting while driving laws. Here in California, we do, but the fine associated is only $20 (plus court fees) for the first offense.

SoCal Connected premieres at 8 p.m. tonight on KCET.