[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.