Hold on. I've found it. Something we all can agree upon.
Texting while driving is a really, really bad idea. It's boneheaded. Horrifyingly reckless. Oh, and it's against the law.
Problem is, some rabid texters won't stop until they get caught or have a crash.
Given the difficulty of catching these fleet-fingered motorists, they may have a better chance of crashing than they have of getting a ticket.
Virginia's texting-while-driving ban became a primary offense July 1. But - as predicted - it's proving difficult to enforce. Besides being nearly impossible for police officers to peer inside moving cars to see if texting is taking place, the sloppy law is riddled with loopholes.
For example, it's illegal to take your eyes off the road to read or send a text message but it's apparently OK to look away to use your phone's GPS.
I'd like to meet the Mensa member who came up with that.
In a Saturday story headlined "Few tickets written so far, but law's influence hailed," The Pilot's Mike Connors reported that only a handful of violators had been nailed for texting while driving in Hampton Roads.
Predictably, Virginia Beach, the largest city and the one that swells with tourists in the summer had the most citations, 55. Chesapeake collared seven texting drivers, Norfolk two and Suffolk one. Portsmouth didn't know if it had any.
Fact is, this law is essentially a feel-good gesture that relies on drivers to simply do the right thing with little fear of fines and tickets. States that are serious about reducing the danger posed by cellphone use ban hand-held devices. So far, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, only a dozen states do.
Virginia is one of 41 states that ban texting, however.
Look, I'm no lover of more laws. But a statute that prohibits the use of at least handheld phones while driving would be a common-sense step to make the roads a little safer. Best of all, it wouldn't stomp on anyone's constitutional rights.
When we think of texting while driving, we assume the knotheads who engage in it are the cause of accidents. But they can also be victims of other bad drivers.
Somewhere in Virginia Beach is a very lucky gray-haired guy who drives a black Mercedes sedan. I know that vague description matches many luxury car drivers, but it's all I've got. I was trying not to die when I encountered him Monday.
He's extremely fortunate because the woman driving behind him wasn't yammering on her phone, texting or playing with her GPS when he suddenly decided to stop and make a left-hand turn.
Did he use his turn signal? Of course not. That would take all the excitement out of driving.
I simultaneously stomped on my brake, blasted my clown car's tinny horn and let loose with a string of muttered obscenities as I stopped about a foot short of his expensive bumper.
Down the road, I pulled over and vented. On Twitter.
"Apparently some Mercedes don't come equipped with turn signals. Odd," I tweeted.
Moments later, this reply: "In this town, if you see a car with its turn signal on, you can assume it was on at the showroom when bought."
One more reason to keep your eyes on the road. And not on your phone.
Kerry Dougherty, 757-446-2306, kerry.dougherty@cox.net,
PilotOnline.com/dougherty