[TexasTransplant]

Leave it to Nanny Cops to discover a new way to Tax

TT

[concentric circles]

Next on the list?

[Delta 21]

Dont have a cell phone or use one while driving, and definatly dont live in the land of fruits and nuts so I say....double those fines!!!

[Hannibal Hamlin]

I've seen women put on makeup while driving!

All forms of distracted driving should be prohibited. Why single out just one type?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Nanny State Ping List Material?

How's your day going?

[HereInTheHeartland]

"a," said Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto"

Democrats love to tell us how to behave.
We should just ban cars or have a 5 mph speed limit to ensure everyones safety.

[leda]

hmmm.. i heard a while back that nose picking was a major
cause of traffic accidents. outlaw noses in moving vehicles?

[glorgau]

I agree wholeheartedly. Zombies on cell phones are just as dangerous as drunk drivers.

While a call making ban could never be enforced, at the very least, calls should be made hands-free.

[sgtbono2002]

It doesnt matter whether the cell phone is hand held or not. The problem is that when they are talking on the phone they are not paying full time and attention to their driving.

If you want to talk --pull over and talk then drive on.

Or perhaps like drunks, get a designated drivier with no phone, then you can talk all the way there and all the way back

[goldstategop]

Liberals want to micromanage our lives... we're too stupid to drive safely, so they'll tell us how - like we're children!

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[mkjessup]

Arguments about personal liberty notwithstanding, I have seen WAY too many drivers going down the road with cellphones glued to the sides of their heads, yakking away, babbling away, yelling, shouting, laughing, you name it, and they are BARELY paying attention to the operation of their vehicle and the traffic around them, they are either driving way too fast because their "in-flight conversation" has them aggravated, or they're driving way too slow because they're having a nice mellow mutual murmur with the object of their affections at the other end of the circuit.

The result? We have MORE traffic accidents and fatalities because unlike picking one's nose, unlike taking a drink from a cup of coffee, etc., using a cellphone (with the possible exception of handsfree models) requires as much (or in the cases of some drivers, MORE) concentration than it does to operate the motor vehicle itself.

Ask yourself how you would feel about your airline pilot on any commercial flight, talking away on a cellphone while transporting you from point A to point B at about 35,000 feet? You want him talking, or do you want him flying?

Just like a firearm, a motor vehicle is capable of unleashing vast death and destruction if it is not operated properly and with wisdom. When driving, it is our expectation as a society that drivers should be paying attention to what they're doing. You wanna talk on the damn phone? Pull over and talk on your cellphone, or go without a cellphone and use an old style payphone.

That's exactly what I do. I don't own a cellphone and I enjoy the uninterrupted peace and tranquility it brings.

And I pay 100 percent of my attention to driving when I'm behind the wheel.

[BallyBill]

8-Tracks, now that's the real problem on the roads today.

[szweig]

In a perfect world people would realize that cellphones whilst driving are not a good idea and would use them when necessary. As it is now they will talk for the sake of talking - nothing that couldn't wait. So....help me Nanny. WE GET THE GUBMINT WE DESERVE. I sometimes wish that I could be immune from gubmint intrusion...make that ALWAYS wish...SSZ

[BallyBill]

Next they'll be telling us how fast to drive, what side of the road to drive on and tell me I can't sip my bottle of ole' Red Eye. Fascist!!

[mollynme]

I can't count the number of times I have seen distracted drivers swerving or braking suddenly because they were busy talking, swatting or otherwise dealing with their passengers/kids. Maybe we should ban passengers and or/require that kids be placed in separate compartments? LOL

[Cobra64]

$20 for the first offense

It will cost at least $50 per citation to process. The state will lose money on first offenders.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

In the past three weeks I have witnessed : a guy blowing through a red light, a car next to me veering into my lane, a car blowing through a stop sign, and a freeway lane chance that missed an accident by inches. The common thread is (drum roll please): a cell phone. In EVERY case the the driver wasn't paying attention because they were on the phone.

I have a foreign exchange student that just joined us two weeks ago today. Every time we see someone driving erratic, we check to confirm that a cell phone is in the hands of the driver. It took him only a few days to be able to spot a drive that is DUICP (Driving under the influence of a cell phone).

It is so bad in our area that most people feel that if they are driving that they should be on the phone. I would say that at least 30 to 50% of all drivers on the road are DUICP.

I totally agree that anything that distracts or diverts the drivers attention that results in an accident is a worthy of a ticket. A few months ago I witnessed an erratic driver on a freeway interchange. He was driving a clubcab pickup pulling a large cargo trailer. Not only was he on the phone, he was having lunch. He had the cell phone squeezed between his shoulder and his left ear. The large drink was in the left hand perched on the steering wheel, with the hamburger in right hand. Unbelievable.

[RichRepublican]

Can they not just STAY OUT OF OUR LIVES!

[bert]

The headline here is about the trial of a local woman who broadsided another vehicle. killing the driver. The woman was talking on a cell phone.

She was convicted of negligent man slaughter fined and sentenced to 200 hours community service..... the maximum allowed by Tennessee law.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

Such misguided people having fooled themselves want to be seen using a cellphone to make others think they are important!They should pay higher insurance rates as well.