It’s about time
The Governator will be signing a bill today prohibiting cell phone usage behind the wheel without a hands free device. It’s about time. I only wish they’d sign a cheeseburger-eating bill and a mascara-makeup prohibition bill as well. Sometimes you just gotta legislate the duh out of dumb, unsafe activities people do. Now we just need more cops to write the tickets, and then if people have to pay, they’ll be less inclined to “play”–
i’m going to have to respectfully disagree, though i love and admire the bill’s author.
officers already have ample discretion to cite unsafe driving habits. simple having a hands-free device doesn’t eliminate the unsafest of cellphone usage moments like dialing OR as studies have show to be the most distracting part: the moment the phone rings and your mind wanders away from the road and to whom is calling.
far more accidents are caused by changing radio station, reaching for a CD, or talking to a passenger.
i already use a handsfree for when i feel i can’t avoid making a call on the road (or when i can avoid it, but i’m on the 5 fighting highway hypnosis). i feel far more comfortable with it.
then again, as a proud italian american, i talk with my hands, so really, the cell phone just frees up the hand that otherwise would rather be gesticulating wildly anyway.
I understand your disagreement but still think it’s a hazard to drive with cell. Anecdotally, nearly every time I’ve had a near accident (or nearly been hit while on foot), it has been when the driver was yakking it up.
Whether or not we have to legislate it to death is another question, but I look at it like baby seats. I would have one for my kid anyway, with or without the law. But people like Britney Spears who drive with kid in lap should be cited. Help them protect themselves and the innocent bystanders nearby. …Kind of like anti-Darwinism.