[Stoat]

My apologies for editing the article....this was done in order to remain in compliance with Free Republic posting rules for the Seattle Times.  The full article is only about one sentence longer than this posted version so you aren't missing too much  :-)

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It seems that we're about to see a spike in Bluetooth headset sales in Washington.

 

[microgood]

This is just the excuse I needed to get rid of my cell phone. It just sits in my car in case of an emergency and I never use it otherwise. Since I can no longer use it when I break down or in bad traffic, it is not worth keeping it.

[CommieCutter]

Yeah... then the next thing you know; blue tooth technology accelerates cell phone tumors by 50%.

[martin_fierro]

Cell-phone-driving ban takes effect July 1 in Washington

Same in Kalifornia.

What a koinkydink.

[martin_fierro]

[Joe 6-pack]

"The violation is a so-called secondary offense. That means an officer must first stop the driver for some other violations, such as speeding; then the cell phone offense can be added to the ticket.

Yep...mandatory seat belts started out the same way. Then it became a "primary offense." Now, the FedGov funds the national, "Click it, or ticket" campaign.

It won't be long, it will be illegal to talk to other people in your car or tune the radio.

[antiRepublicrat]

The violation is a so-called secondary offense.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[HungarianGypsy]

The accident I got into involving my cell phone was when I wasn’t using it. I was on my way to open my brother-in-law’s store. The phone ran two different times. I thought it might be an emergency, so pulled off the freeway to find a parking lot to call back from. I was waiting on the off ramp and got rear ended. I wonder if I would have been safer if I had answered.

[Publius6961]

Add California to that July 1 deadline.
It's only a matter of time before it gets worse for the delusionals who think they can chew gum and walk at the same time --- better than anyone else.

Continuing research will prove adequately that whether they hold the phone or are hands-free, their impairment is practically the same; but the only ones that seem to notice are the drivers around them concentrating on --- ta-daaa--- their driving!

[isrul]

Uhura never looked that good.

[boogerbear]

Of course the law won’t work. It’s not the holding the phone to your ear that makes the accidents, it’s the having the brain concentrating on the conversation that does it. Some people just can’t multi-task.

[dragnet2]

I refuse to use a phone while driving. When I drive I am totally into driving, and not concerned or bothered by telephones.

I’ve told my clients the same, so they just leave a message...I always get back to them when it’s convenient and safe for me to do so.

[elkfersupper]

None of the state’s business, completely unenforcable and just another reason for armed revenue enhancement agents to stop you, assess a toll for using their road and go through your stuff.

[hunter112]

I remember when seat belt violations were a so-called ‘secondary’ offense in the People’s Republic of Washington, as well...

[Stoat]

An update from across the Pond....

Hands-free phone driver convicted of causing death by dangerous driving Mail Online

"A driver who caused a fatal crash during a hands-free conversation was jailed for four-and-a-half years today.

Haulier Mervyn Richmond, 49, ploughed straight in to the back of a Transit van without even trying to brake - killing its passenger, father-of-two Michael Buston.

He had been chatting to his mother for 23 minutes using the hands-free Bluetooth connection in his Scania HGV.

A court heard that he had been concentrating on the conversation so much he was 'oblivious to all around him' and failed to spot a line of stationary traffic on the long, straight dual carriageway ahead of him.
 

Last night, after a jury took just an hour to convict him of causing death by dangerous driving, safety experts called for the ban on hand-held mobile phones at the wheel to be extended to hands-free calls.

Roger Vincent, of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: 'It is a fact that when you are using any mobile while driving you are four times more likely to have an accident."

(more at the Daily Mail link)