Joe McAdory: How is applying makeup safer than texting?

It’s hard to read the mail and drive at the same time. Keeping your eyes focused on the road while flipping through power bills and the upcoming Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is a marriage made by tow trucks and ambulances.

It’s hard to comb your hair, or add another layer of Maybelline blush to your cheeks and keep your attention to traffic.

I wouldn’t know about the Maybelline part.

Just a hunch.

It’s hard to watch a movie on one of those new, fancy in-car DVDs (may I suggest Hooper, Cannonball Run or Bullitt) and not nearly wind up in a crash scene yourself. The only stunt dummy is you.

It’s hard to read those restaurant marquees featuring daily specials or check out advertisements on roadside billboards when you’re trying to keep it between the lines. Traffic patterns change in a split seconds.

It’s hard to turn your eyes to the CD case, flip through the files and make that difficult choice between Sinatra and MC Hammer without noticing the green light just turned red.

It’s hard for a parent to turn completely around and desperately search for baby’s lost binky in the backseat and see what’s in front of them.

And it’s hard to send a text message … or two … or three … without peeling your eyes from the road and onto your Blackberry – for many seconds at a time.

Reading the SI Swimsuit Issue while driving is legal in Alabama. So is combing your hair, looking away at billboards, searching through CD cases and searching for the blessed binky while driving. It appears none of these are considered moving violations … until an accident occurs. Then it becomes reckless.

But the Alabama House voted last week to make composing text messages on cell phones a violation — calling for fines between $25 and $75 per offense. Whether or not this becomes law appears to be up to the Senate.

Texting is a traffic hazard simply because it takes the motorists’ attention off of the road and on to their phones — like many other things.

I sent a text message driving to work Tuesday morning. Laws were not broken, though the PETA police might hang me for running over a crazed, indecisive squirrel. Hey, that was his fault. I had the right of way.

For roughly 20 seconds, my eyes were not focused on Lee Road 151 as I navigated my sedan with my left knee (that’s legal too, right?) blindly at 45 mph along this winding road. I find it nearly impossible to keep it between the lines, or truly follow traffic around you, when you are typing “y r u going 2 Phenix City 2day?”

Any measure authorities can make to create a safer driving environment for us all is worth taking, and that includes text messages. But we must remember there are plenty of other hazards that take our attention off of the road. Safe driving starts with the person behind the wheel. Please pay attention to the road and leave the Maybelline at home.

* * *

Robert Treese, who has worked the last 10 years at the Lee County Justice Center as Assistant District Attorney under Nick Abbett, will seek Abbett’s position this year.

Treese, who was promoted last year to Chief Assistant District Attorney, said he has “tried more felony jury trials in the last decade than any other prosecutor in Lee County.”

“I spent the vast majority of my professional career in the DA’s office. It’s what I know best,” said Treese, who was recently president of the Lee County
Bar Association.

Treese said he “learned from the best prosecutors in the country” by spending time at the National Advocacy Center, which he considered “America’s college for prosecutors.”

Treese, a 1984 Auburn University graduate and Dallas County native, spent much of his early career working with the Department of Human Resources involving child neglect and abuse cases. He is also a member of the National District Attorneys Association, Association of Government Lawyers in Capital Litigation and the Alabama District Attorneys
Association.

Auburn attorney Lance Abbott, a former ABI agent and Alabama Highway Patrolman, is expected to make his candidacy for the race official with an announcement Monday.

Look for more on Abbott in this column next week.

Joe McAdory is editorial page editor for the Opelika-Auburn News. He can be reached at 737-2549 or jmcadory@oanow.com