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Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Texting while
drlivling banned
Statewide law makes
texting on the road a
primary offense
By BRIENNE PRUSAK
Daily StaffReporter
Billboards have begun to line the
highways across the state informing
drivers and passengers of a new state_
law - which went into effect on Jun.
30 - prohibiting reading, writing or
sending text messages on a cell phone
while driving.
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Gran-
holm signed the legislation on The
Oprah Winfrey Show on Apr. 30,
making Michigan one of 28 states to
ban text messaging while driving in
an attempt to make the roads safer for
fellow drivers and pedestrians alike.
The legislation states that if the
vehicle is not moving, like at a stop
sign, drivers can still text on their
cell phones. The law also excuses text
messages sent by drivers to report an
emergency or a crime.
Under the new Michigan law,
texting while driving is a primary
offense. While violators will not
receive any points on their driver's
license, first-time offenders will be
issued a $100 fine and repeat offend-
ers will face a $200 fine.
State Sen. Liz Brater (D-Ann
Arbor) said she supports the texting
ban based on the significant amount
of evidence suggesting that it's dan-
gerous to send text messages while
driving.
Paul Green, a research professor at
the University of Michigan's Trans-
portation Research Institute, wrote
in an e-mail interview with The
Michigan Daily that scientific data
reveals an increased chance for acci-
dents to occur when a driver is text
messaging while on the road.
"The risk ratio for a crash (is)
about 14 times normal in one study,
with other studies showing similar
values," Green wrote.
Green wrote that the risk ratio is
increased while texting because it
forces drivers to look away from the
road for significant periods of time,
and it's difficult to steer when typing
a message.
Green added that while it doesn't
necessarily mean that everyone will
have an accident while texting and
driving, but the risk is increased.
Ann Arbor City Council Member
Christopher Taylor (D-Ward 3) said
the ban will make the roads safer for
everyone, adding that he believes the
texting ban will be most effective
after it receives sufficient publicity,
especially since the legislation is gen-
erally accepted as a safety precaution.
Green, on the other hand, said he
believes the texting ban's success
depends on the level at which police
officers enforce it.
"Its effectiveness depends on
enforcement and the extent to which
not texting becomes the accepted
social norm, just as wearing a seat
belt is now accepted," he said.
Lt. Renee Bush of the Ann Arbor
Police Department said time will
tell if the law is going to be hard to
enforce, but said she believes people
are generally concerned about safety
and will recognize that the law is
there to protect them.
Bush said police will be looking
for drivers who are visibly typing on
a cell phone or looking down while
driving, and added that there will not
be any discrimination based on age,
and the police anticipate encounter-
ing violators of all ages and genera-
tions.
Bush added that the AAPD's main
concern is not writing tickets, but
all these other teams," he said.
Kumar, who led the team during the
race, added that the University of Min-
nesota - the runner-up team in the
ASC this year - ran a very aggressive
race but appeared to run out of energy
in trying to keep up with the Univer-
sity of Michigan's solar car.
"We were able to work as a team
much better than anybody else and
that is what ultimately gained us the
victory," he said.
Kumar said many of the senior
members who raced in the 2009 World
Solar Challenge graduated, posing
another challenge for the team to over-
come.
"The biggest challenge was getting
them trained in the art of racing a solar
car," he said. "Given these conditions,
what I think gave us the win was the
rigorous amount of testing we did as
soon as school ended."
The 2010 ASC also underwent sev-
eral changes from previous years, the
most significant being the race route.
LSA junior Rachel Kramer, the Solar
Car Team's project manager, said the
route was cut in half compared to pre-
vious years.
Despite changes in regulation and
the team's route, Kumar said they ran
into only one issue during the race.
instead keeping the roads safe by
discouraging drivers from being
distracted as they are when texting
while driving.
LSA sophomore Natalie Christian
said she supports the ban given the
possibility for text messaging to dis-
tract drivers from the road.
"Even though you may think it's
not affecting your driving skills, any-
thing can happen in a matter of sec-
onds," Christian said. "That's all it
takes. I definitely see the ban having
a positive impact."
LSA sophomore Nicole Allen
echoed Christian's sentiment, saying
she believes drivers should put down
their phones and pay attention to the
task at hand.
"People are way too plugged in
nowadays, and we need to relearn
how to focus on things like driving,
which seems mundane to us even
though one second of distraction on
the road can change our lives forev-
er," Allen said.
LSA senior Kortni Malone said she
agrees that texting is a distraction
while driving and can have devastat-
ing effects.
"There are so many things that
can happen in the blink of an eye,"
Malone said. "It takes a text message
longer than that to travel across car-
riers, but one wrong move can end a
life. I'm sure that text can wait."
According to Bush, no fines had
been issued by the Ann Arbor Police
Department as of Friday Jul. 2 at
noon.
"It was drizzling a bit and the water
shorted one of our circuits so we spent
about fifteen minutes on the side of the
road trying to figure out the problem
and debug the problem," Kumar said,
"But even then we were going so fast
(that) we still managed to finish that
stage in first place."
With another American Solar Chal-
lenge win under their belts, members
of the Solar Car Team have begun
planning on their next goal: winning
the World Solar Challenge. The team
came in third place in the internation-
al competition last year and in seventh
place the previous year.
The Infinium, like the team's previ-
ous solar car models, has been retired
See SOLAR CAR, Page 3
Online at MichiganDaily.com
Solar Car: Log on to watch
the University's Solar Car
Team discuss the Infinium.
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*I
Solar Car Team
wins American
Solar Challenge
University student
team takes trophy for
the sixth time
By TOREHAN SHARMAN
For the Daily
With their third consecutive win at
the 2010 American Solar Challenge on
Jun. 26, members of the University's
Solar Car Team have already begun to
set their sights ona similar result at the
2011 World Solar Challenge in Austra-
lia.
The Infinium - the team's current
car - crossed the finish line more than
two hours ahead of its competition,
marking the sixth time the Solar Car
Team has had a first place finish at the
ASC.
Spanning 1,100 miles from Broken
Arrow, Oklahoma to Naperville, Illi-
nois, the 2010 American Solar Chal-
lenge hosted 13 teams from a variety
of institutions, ranging from the Uni-
versity of Minnesota to the Bochum
University of Applied Sciences in Ger-
many.
Engineering senior Santosh Kumar,
the Solar Car Team's engineering
director, said that despite the team's
winning streak, he and the other mem-
bers were still concerned about wheth-
er they could beat the competition.
"Even though we had a much more
superior car, because of the slow
nature of the race, we knew that it
would be difficult to break away from
*S