Cell-phone law tough enough? Ask New Jersey (NJ Police say WA State law is toothless)

The Everett Herald (Washington State) ^ | June 30, 2008 | Yoshiaki Nohara

[Stoat]

Washington is poised to make driving while talking on hand-held cell phones illegal.

New Jersey has already been down this road.

The cell-phone ban for Washington will start Tuesday and will be similar to a New Jersey law that went into effect in 2003.

Washington's law makes it a secondary offense. That means police must find a driver committing another violation such as speeding before stopping drivers for holding a cell phone up to their ear.

New Jersey's law also began as a secondary offense.

State officials there found the law toothless and difficult to enforce, said William Cicchetti, president of the New Jersey Police Traffic Officers' Association.

"It didn't make any impact at all," Cicchetti said.

Each month, New Jersey troopers and police issued about 1,500 tickets. This year, New Jersey stiffened its law, making it a primary offense, or one where they can pull over drivers solely for talking on a cell phone. And the change was immediate.

Since March, police are issuing an average of 11,600 tickets per month in New Jersey, a state of about 8.7 million people. New Jersey officials say it will take more time to find out whether law makes their highways and roads safer. Still, the law needed to be expanded to make drivers obey it.

 

[Misterioso]

What so many Freepers are confessing here is that none of their conversations are important enough to just stop the car.

[Pikachu_Dad]

Well then just chop down the towers. You can’t use a cell phone without a tower.

[cva66snipe]

What so many Freepers are confessing here is that none of their conversations are important enough to just stop the car.

Well the cops sure don't have to so why should I? BTW I use a headset. Cops have phone glued to ear.

[microgood]

So traffic laws are all about income for the city? Or State? There’s a rationalization for you.

Color me cynical, but when I found out about the stop light cameras in San Diego, where they were not making enough revenue and decided to shorten the yellow light, I started to see they were willing to sacrifice safety for the almighty buck. In addition, most of the people they get are late into a yellow light, which is not what causes the bad wrecks and could happen to anyone.

I do not personally care about the cell phone issue, since I never talk on it while driving, but I follow State Patrolman every other day down I-5 doing 10 or more over the speed limit, and I usually get a speeding ticket every ten years or so by just going with the traffic flow.

[4woodenboats]

Handsfree phone use can still be extremely distracting.

Heck, it's hard enough to find and answer my cell phone when I'm home, much less driving. If I have to jam some gizzy into my ear at the same time, there goes the one eye and hand I was keeping on the road, not to mention unbuckling the seat belt so I can feel around the beer cans all over the floor and under the rear seat, and WTH would I going to do with my pancake syrup?

It's a good thing I have a sunroof, cause I hear they're ticketing for throwing things out the window.

[Aut Pax Aut Bellum]

one good thing about (the people's republic of)NJ...
um, it's close to the ocean?

[Stoat]

If it is about “revenue,” then why did it take so long for the legislation?

I'm not so sure that the speed of any associated legislation would have been expedited if the underlying motive force was one of a desire for enhanced safety.....Leftist Leviathan Legislators being what they are.  The California law which is due to be implemented at the same time as Washington's allows for text messaging, after all, which I believe most people would find FAR more distracting for far more people than talking on the phone is.

What so many Freepers are confessing here is that none of their conversations are important enough to just stop the car.

I'm hesitant to consider myself qualified to divine the motives of why people do things in terms of extremely broad brushstrokes, particularly in a matter such as this where a person's individual abilities, comfort zone and life scenarios play a central role in the success or failure of a safe mobile call, but speaking only for myself I never talk on the phone while driving anyway because

• There are reasons why God invented answering services, and taking calls for you while you're driving is one of them.
• I can't conceive of a personal call that would be so emergent that it couldn't wait five minutes until I find a safe place to pull over and return the call.  If the caller didn't leave a message, that tells me that the call wasn't so important to begin with.  If they are having a true emergency, then they should be calling 911 instead of the stoat.
• I prefer speaking with people at a time and place where I can give them the courtesy of my very fullest attention.  People who call me on my personal cell phone will (usually) be my personal friends and family, and I respect them, their concerns and their time so much that I don't want to give them only a part of my attention....I consider that to be rude.  But, that's just me.

To be clear, I don't welcome laws such as this because it insinuates The State in a matter that, in my view, really should be up to a person's good judgement.  A cell call can indeed be made or received safely given the satisfactory merging of numerous factors...among them:

• The comfort zone of the driver in terms of multitasking
• The nature of and the stress level associated with the call
• Road conditions

Could a calm and serene former F-16 pilot who is driving on an arrow-straight and flat Montana road with no intersections for fifty miles on a beautiful sunny afternoon make a safe cell call of less than a minute's duration to his loving and devoted wife just to remind her that he loves her?

Sure, why not?

Should a particularly high-strung, emotionally unstable meth addict consider making a cell call to his Mob "Enforcer" to beg with him for an extra 24 hours to come up with the cash while driving in a major city's downtown rush hour during a thunderstorm?

Probably not.

In either case, if they cause an accident either person will still be legally liable if they end up having made the wrong decision.

[Misterioso]

Where do you do most of your driving, if I may ask. My animus toward cell phone use while driving stems from my daily experience in traffic. I have no ability to foresee an accident that might be caused by driver inattention so my dismay is the effect it has on traffic flow. It is not possible for an alert motorist not to observe the disruption—and concomitant hazards—caused by irregular speeds and slow starts typical of the phone impaired driver. Not to mention dangerous maneuvers like sudden lane changes (when they discover they have gone a little too far) and/or the quick u-turns as the remedy. If you live where traffic is lighter than the Los Angeles Westside area, then you’re lucky.

[Grunthor]

“I’m in CA and I know that it will be far more distracting for me to struggle to turn on the speakerphone feature and answer my phone instead of just flipping it open and answering it.”

“I find my 4 young children in the backseat far more distracting than my phone anyway. FAR more.”

How about not answering the phone while you are driving and already partially distracted by kids in the back?

[21twelve]

“It’s just the LEFT wanting to control you.”

I disagree. Other comments talk about the money - and I disagree.

The people that want these laws I think are genuinely concerned for our safety (I’m not sure if this cell-phone law was a referendum or not). Just like the trans-fat laws, the menu/ingredient laws, the smoking laws, etc. - they are doing it for our own good.

That is even scarier I think than if it was just for control or for money. (Although those are two obvious outcomes).

Personally I get distracted while talking on the headset too. The kids in the backseat or my wife or a passenger next to me I typically ignore - which my wife points out to me numerous times! ;) But just the other day I was next to a gal that was going too slow and kept weaving across the line. Waving her hands and looking at her passenger while gabbing away.

[nmh]

You are free to believe whatever you wish.

What I have noticed is the LEFT simply wants to control you. It matters not if it doesn't make sense. Very few accidents have been caused by people talking on their cell phones. More accidents are caused by kids, distracting the driver, reading, yes reading in the car and things like that.

[Stoat]

Where do you do most of your driving, if I may ask. My animus toward cell phone use while driving stems from my daily experience in traffic. I have no ability to foresee an accident that might be caused by driver inattention so my dismay is the effect it has on traffic flow. It is not possible for an alert motorist not to observe the disruption—and concomitant hazards—caused by irregular speeds and slow starts typical of the phone impaired driver. Not to mention dangerous maneuvers like sudden lane changes (when they discover they have gone a little too far) and/or the quick u-turns as the remedy. If you live where traffic is lighter than the Los Angeles Westside area, then you’re lucky.

If a person is driving in the conditions you describe, then I would prefer that an individual's good judgment guide them into not using a cell phone at that time, and for their judgment to be aggressively enforced by the preexisting legal framework, which is extensive..

Again, laws such as this presuppose that

• All people are unable to make such a simple, obvious and basic judgment as what you describe
• All people must, therefore, be legally barred from the opportunity to make not only that judgment, but all judgments pertaining to in-car cellphone use because they are far too stupid and must be treated like children by The State.

Given that billions of safe mobile cellphone calls are made every day, should all of this end because an extremely small number of people use poor judgment?

Or, should we instead aggressively enforce the multitude of laws already on the books which address the results of such improper judgments, such as but not limited to:

• Impeding traffic
• weaving
• Driving too slow or fast for conditions
• Failure to signal
• Failure to yield when required
• Failure to stay in the lane

I share your visceral animus toward lousy drivers and inattentive drivers who make the wrong choices...I also see them every day and I would like very much for it all to stop.  I work in prehospital emergency medical services and I see the results of their poor choices every darned day, in the form of broken or dismembered bodies and destroyed lives and families.

I tend to stop short, however, when it comes to using the sledgehammer of The State to deprive ALL people of a freedom that only a few are abusing.  Such laws frequently have a cascade effect of sorts, in that they embolden legislators to make similar laws....and soon we look back and wonder where all of our freedoms have gone.

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
 

[Stoat]

Handsfree phone use can still be extremely distracting.

Heck, it's hard enough to find and answer my cell phone when I'm home, much less driving. If I have to jam some gizzy into my ear at the same time, there goes the one eye and hand I was keeping on the road, not to mention unbuckling the seat belt so I can feel around the beer cans all over the floor and under the rear seat, and WTH would I going to do with my pancake syrup?

ROTFLMAO!!!

It's a good thing I have a sunroof, cause I hear they're ticketing for throwing things out the window.

I am absolutely delighted that you are enjoying and making full use of The Great American Superhighway

 

 

Cultural Catholic - Vatican Rules of the Road

 

Vatican Rules of the Road
Ten Commandments of Driving I. You shall not kill II. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm III. Courtesy, uprightness, and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events IV. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need especially victims of accidents V. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination and an occasion of sin VI. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so VII. Support the families of accident victims VIII. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together at the appropriate time so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness IX. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party X. Feel responsible towards others

******************************************************************

and WTH would I going to do with my pancake syrup?

Whenever in doubt about any issue pertaining to pancakes, it's important to consult The Source:

 

 

 

Handsfree phone use can still be extremely distracting.

Heck, it's hard enough to find and answer my cell phone when I'm home, much less driving. If I have to jam some gizzy into my ear at the same time, there goes the one eye and hand I was keeping on the road, not to mention unbuckling the seat belt so I can feel around the beer cans all over the floor and under the rear seat, and WTH would I going to do with my pancake syrup?

ROTFLMAO!!!

It's a good thing I have a sunroof, cause I hear they're ticketing for throwing things out the window.

[4woodenboats]

Ooh, I just got to get me a set of those spice figurines - I got a spot on my dashboard that'd be perfect for 'em - fill one with mustard, another with relish, and the 3rd with syrup.

I could even rig some velcro to stick the phone & ear plug on to a couple of 'em. Or just lend my truck to the boy and his friends for the weekend, I probably wouldn't need the velcro...

I hope they're bobbleheads

[swarthyguy]

Hey, I’m all for more laws. The mo’ the better.

And if we’re looking at distractions while driving, heck, there ought to be a law against women starting serious conversations while I’m driving.

[Stoat]

Ooh, I just got to get me a set of those spice figurines - I got a spot on my dashboard that'd be perfect for 'em - fill one with mustard, another with relish, and the 3rd with syrup.

I'm not one for knickknacks (the stoat cave is already full to bursting with rock and roll records, emergency medical equipment and books), but those Aunt Jemima figurines are obviously essential items.  Perhaps some can be found on eBay?  Your condiment choices are eclectic and an excellent guide for all.

I could even rig some velcro to stick the phone & ear plug on to a couple of 'em.

Your engineering skills are awesome  :-)

Or just lend my truck to the boy and his friends for the weekend, I probably wouldn't need the velcro...

"snort"

I hope they're bobbleheads

If they aren't, my guess is that anyone who can turn them into cellphone holders using only velcro, a blowtorch and some teenagers will have no problems whatsoever converting them to bobbleheads   :-)

Ooh, I just got to get me a set of those spice figurines - I got a spot on my dashboard that'd be perfect for 'em - fill one with mustard, another with relish, and the 3rd with syrup.

I'm not one for knickknacks (the stoat cave is already full to bursting with rock and roll records, emergency medical equipment and books), but those Aunt Jemima figurines are obviously essential items.  Perhaps some can be found on eBay?  Your condiment choices are eclectic and an excellent guide for all.

I could even rig some velcro to stick the phone & ear plug on to a couple of 'em.

Your engineering skills are awesome  :-)

Or just lend my truck to the boy and his friends for the weekend, I probably wouldn't need the velcro...

"snort"

I hope they're bobbleheads

If they aren't, my guess is that anyone who can turn them into cellphone holders using only velcro, a blowtorch and some teenagers will have no problems whatsoever converting them to bobbleheads   :-)

[Stoat]

Addendum....I assume you know that if you end up moving forward with your stellar Aunt Jemima Dashboard plan that you’ll never be able to drive through King County again?
Such a magnificent display would absolutely drive the White Left here around the bend, if you’ll pardon the pun :-)
The more reasonable black folks would probably have a chuckle over it, but the white leftists would probably chase you down and set your car on fire with you in it....and then the Seattle P.I. would congratulate them for their “noble fight against racist oppression”

[Stoat]

304 results for "Aunt Jemima" at eBay  :-)

Aunt Jemima, Cultures, Ethnicities, Housewares Kitchenware items on eBay.com