DUI-T – driving under the influence of Twitter, of course.

Crowd Science recently conducted a study about social media, particularly social media use and driving habits. And while it can be said that the results shock the conscience, they aren’t particularly shocking otherwise.

You’ve all seen him (or her): the genius in the middle lane, straying left and then right, driving too slowly but then almost rear-ending the eighteen-wheeler in front of him (or her). You know he (or she) is an erratic driver and you don’t want to be anywhere near this impending wreck, so you pass on the side and take a sidelong glance as you do and, sure enough, the MENSA member has a phone in his (or her) hand and is clicking away feverishly, because the new spoiler about the threesome on CW’s Gossip Girl is far more meaningful than the fact that he (0r she) is driving a two-ton hunk of metal capable of causing significant damage.

Here are some of the statistics culled from CrowdScience’s survey on social media use.

Almost 3 of 10 Twits has used Twitter while driving, whether it was to send out an update or to check other updates or direct messages. Comparatively, a little more than 1 in 10 social media users has used other social media sites while driving.

The temptation to do so can be easily explained: sites like Twitter (and Facebook) accept status updates from mobile devices, and there are many third party applications (TwitterFon, TwitterBerry, Tweetie, and more) that make it even easier to tweet from your Blackberry or iPhone. Texting while driving has been a big concern for years now, and this is exactly what this is.

On top of the increasing functionality of cell phone technology (you’ve undoubtedly seen all sorts of ads by now for cell phones, in which applications to access and use Twitter are featured prominently), we have our growing addiction to social media (Twitter, particularly) to blame for these numbers. Apparently, we just can’t keep our thoughts off the interwebz…or our eyes on the road.

I was a little curious about this, so I did a quick Twitter search for “driving,” and here are some of the tweets that popped up. (Click to enlarge.)

And there are plenty of other examples of Twits tweeting while driving – a couple dozen new ones pop up every minute, in fact.

Sources in the UK did a similar study earlier this year to examine drivers’ cellular phone usage. In the UK, it’s illegal to use hand-held phones at all while driving, but according to Esure, a UK-based car insurance company, an average of 52 motorists a day are specifically tweeting about how they’re tweeting behind the wheel.

Clearly, we just can’t help ourselves. When a thought pops up that can be condensed into 140 characters, we have to share it, even if we endanger our own lives and the lives of other motorists in doing so.

So far, seven states have altogether banned texting while driving: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Washington, along with the District of Columbia. New drivers are forbidden to text while driving in Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. School bus drivers are banned from texting in Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

In my home state of Illinois, Governor Pat Quinn signed a measure into law in August that banned sending SMS messages while driving, which applies to text-happy Twits as well as anyone trying to send out emails or instant-messages, like mobile professionals, abhorrent as the buzzword may be. The law takes effect on January 1, 2010, and the starting fine is $75. Illinois drivers will be able to send such messages if traffic is stopped AND the car is parked or in neutral, or if the driver has pulled over to the shoulder, or to report a roadside emergency.

Additionally, the Obama administration has banned all federal employees from texting while driving on the job or in a government-owned vehicles, and will be considering new restrictions on cell phone use by railway, truck, and bus drivers. The administration also called on state and local governments to pass laws to discourage these practices. This was set out in an executive order signed Wednesday, September 30, 2009 and released on Thursday, October 1.

Dusting off an old chestnut of a concept that all of us law students undoubtedly stumbled upon during Constitutional Law, the government will be tying passage of these laws banning texting to the states’ receipt of highway funds. Under the Constitution, the federal government (Congress) cannot pass any laws banning texting while driving in the United States. It’s simply not among Congress’s enumerated powers.

However, a nifty way to get around this is to cloak it in the Taxing and Spending power that the Constitution expressly grants to the legislative body. Taxing and Spending as a power necessarily involves Congress’s power relating to federal highways, which are necessarily interstate highways. States get money for the upkeep, of course, but Congress can condition the funds on the states’ passage of certain laws that the government wants passed. In the 1987 case of South Dakota v. Dole, SCOTUS upheld a federal law withholding highway funds to the states that didn’t raise their legal drinking age to 21. In that case, the initiative was to keep youngins from getting trashed and then heading out on the roads. Currently, the initiative is to keep all of us off our phones when we should be focusing on the road.

If you want more information about cell phone laws in your state, please visit the IIHS website and stay informed.

What’s the next step after these social media studies are released? They’ll be used as ammunition in the states’ quest to ban texting on the road completely. I mentioned the states that already ban it, and the list of states that are considering banning texting is getting longer and longer. In IL, we’ll be fined $75 in a few months if we’re caught texting. In MO, if you’re under 21 and you’re similarly caught, expect to pay a fine of $200, and so on for other states.

And, given our galloping addiction to social media (23 signs that you’re addicted – don’t forget to tweet this!), the odds that we’ll be paying up big time are looking pretty good. In addition to DUI lawyers, some of us will likely be seeking DUIT lawyers.

Your Honor, the textalyzer machine is subject to error, as my client has been recently exposed to volatile subjects, trending topics, in technical terms, such as #yankees, #Arod, #Glee, #followfriday and #whatsintheuhaul. As such, I would like to submit into evidence a second, independent test, your DUIT lawyer will say.

As for me, I will absolutely stay off Twitter and Facebook while I’m driving, lest I meet this cruel end:

Whatever.

At least my mugshot is better than Nick Nolte‘s.

Originally posted at The Reasonably Prudent Law Student.

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