Don’t drink — and don’t text

Re “Put your phone down and drive,” Opinion, April 4

I could not agree more with John Morgan Wilson.

On April 3, the Automobile Club of Southern California launched a public campaign targeting drivers who would never consider drinking a beer behind the wheel, yet regularly engage with smartphones that dangerously take their eyes, hands and minds off the road. The Auto Club’s goal with this campaign is to make distracted driving as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving.

We want drivers to remember that the tragic consequences of alcoholimpaired driving and texting while driving can be the same — deaths and injuries. John Boyle Costa Mesa The writer is president and chief executive of the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Maybe Wilson should contact the Santa Monica Police Department about his observation of an officer using a cellphone while on the road.

I had a similar experience this past January when I saw a Carlsbad Police Department officer speaking on his phone while the vehicle was motoring along a busy local street. My email to the Police Department expressing concern over the incident went unanswered.

Maybe public safety officials just aren’t interested. Mark J. Tracy Carlsbad

Wilson fails to emphasize strongly enough that any use of an electronic communications device while driving — whether by texting or hands-free voice-only devices — represents unacceptable distraction.

When the driver’s mind has to process new information and organize a response, his reaction to safety threats coming through his own windshield is slowed. This has been demonstrated in numerous academic, government and insurance industry tests.

The danger of conversing with a passenger is not nearly the same, since the passenger also sees the imminent safety threat and usually the conversation stops until it has passed. Ken Feldman Chino Hills