California hands-free mobile phone bill heads to Gov. Schwarzenegger

Mathew Everett 8 Sep, 2006 at 11:06am ET Article published in Tech

The California Assembly and Senate have passed a bill that would bar most mobile phone calls made while driving. Senate Bill 1613 would make calling on a non-hands-free phone an infraction that is punishable by fines. The bill now heads to Governor Schwarzenegger for signing. If the bill is signed into law, starting July 1, 2008 offending drivers could be fined $20 for the first violation and $50 for each violation afterwards. The law explicitly allows drivers to call for fire or police help.

Hands-free phones are exempted from the law. In addition, push-to-talk phones like those from Nextel would be exempt until July 1, 2011. The original bill would have ordered the California Highway Patrol to do a study on whether push-to-talk phones were really safer than ordinary mobile phones, but that phrase has been eliminated from the current bill.

Like many such laws, there are exemptions for civil servants and others. Police officers, fire fighters and other civil servants would be exempt, if they are performing in the scope of their official duties. Commercial truck drivers and drivers of farm vehicles would also be exempt.

Living in California myself, I can say people using cell phones while driving is a huge problem here, most often the drivers are on their phone and will be driving 15MPH under the speed limits or plain out causing accidents from not paying attention. Most people who need to use their cell phones already use hands-free setups, so this law really focus’s on the small class of just people who don’t care. This law could spike a huge sale in new phones in California & accessories like Blue tooth head phones and or head phones with microphones

Source: TGDaily

Comments

8 Sep 2006 ~ 11:12am RADA I'm new to S. Cali, and I'm in 100% agreement with this bill, damn thing should go into effect minutes after signing.

Only been here since May 26th, and I've already had a half a dozen occasions of almost getting creamed by some idiot on their phone while trying to drive...

Oh BTW, was next to someone reading the paper while driving on I60 on my way to Santa Monica yesterday!
8 Sep 2006 ~ 11:35am Sledgehammer70 It gets worse... reading paper in one hand drinking Starbucks in the other while on the cell phone.. yeah I don't know how people do it, and the thing that pisses me off is when you get in an accident with one of them, they have no idea what happened and claim you were at fault... bunch or morons I tell you.
9 Sep 2006 ~ 6:14pm Garg
9 Sep 2006 ~ 6:24pm Kwitko The hands-free law has been in effect in NY State for a while now, and unfortunately nobody takes it seriously. Just today I saw a woman go right through a red light while on her cell phone.
9 Sep 2006 ~ 6:47pm airbornflght hmmmm. that is odd.

We dont have a problem with that in OK, and really, I dont see what is so hard about talking on the phone. I mean, it doesnt require your visual attention, I liken it to talking to a passenger. Now text messaging is something I cant stand. cause you have to take your eyes off the road to do that. But talking...I talk quite a bit, and my friends do; even my grandparents do it.

I personally see nothing wrong with it. Though it may just be oklahoma that doesnt have a huge problem with idiot drivers.
9 Sep 2006 ~ 7:27pm muddocktor I wish we had that law here in Louisiana. As for the fine, I think it should be much, much more. Like $250 for the first offense and $500 for the second offense and a 90 day license suspension for a third offense.
9 Sep 2006 ~ 8:31pm airbornflght are you serious? I've never even had so much as a close call from talking while driving. There may be some people that shouldnt talk while driving, but not enough to warrant a law imo.

Then again, someone once said that the minority will always ruin it for the majority.
9 Sep 2006 ~ 10:46pm Kwitko

airbornflght wrote:

are you serious? I've never even had so much as a close call from talking while driving. There may be some people that shouldnt talk while driving, but not enough to warrant a law imo.

Then again, someone once said that the minority will always ruin it for the majority.

That's because there are 12 people per square mile in OK. Try talking on cellphone and driving in NYC where there are 12 people per square foot.
10 Sep 2006 ~ 1:55am airbornflght

KwitCo™ wrote:

That's because there are 12 people per square mile in OK. Try talking on cellphone and driving in NYC where there are 12 people per square foot.

I've driven through dallas while talking (getting directions of where to go), and didnt think it was difficult, it is pretty congested, but you just have to keep traffic as your #1 priority. and you are right about the population density, but you forget that oklahoma has wide open area with no inhabitants, (mostly farmland, state/national parks) but in oklahoma city and tulsa, I think the traffic is just as congested as other big cities that I have been in.
10 Sep 2006 ~ 5:59pm RADA

airbornflght wrote:

I dont see what is so hard about talking on the phone. I mean, it doesnt require your visual attention, I liken it to talking to a passenger.

Just talking on a phone while driving has been equalled to blowing a .08 (legally drunk in most states) on breathalizer. Those on a hands free get scored marginally better, but still showed the driver operating at a defict when it comes to attention to detail, reaction times, and spatial relations.
10 Sep 2006 ~ 7:31pm Garg Yeah, a handsfree doesn't help me concentrate much. Unless I'm driving a stickshift, then it's a godsend.
10 Sep 2006 ~ 7:43pm Leonardo Almost every day driving home from work (yes even in low population density Alaska) I get so frustrated with the cell phone idiot drivers. I wish I had a huge bullhorn so that I could yell, "Get off the damned phone and concentrate on your erratic driving."
10 Sep 2006 ~ 9:20pm airbornflght hmm. well, those are all different points of view than mine, but I still stand by my statement that it doesnt require your visual attention, which is what you need to drive. And I think of it as talking to a passenger in my car.

As far as a study saying that it is similar to a .08, I'm skeptical of who the study was conducted by, and for what institution. Because, I'm not much of a fan of special interest groups that conduct 'studies' and try to feed me lines, because I can make my own decisions. Kind of like smoking, I say let them smoke if they want to. and when it comes down to it, I think it should all come down to popular sovereignty that way the people really decide. Not the senators and congressmen who have untold motivations for voting the way that they do.
10 Sep 2006 ~ 10:27pm Leonardo Don't take it personally. And actually, the California bill misses the point. The studies, MULTIPLE studies by different groups, have shown that it is not the gadgetry that is distracting, it's the telephone conversation itself that impairs MOST users' attention while driving. Of course, we ALL are superior drivers (all males are close to infallible) and NONE of us are susceptible to impaired driving through alcohol, drugs (legal or illegal), conversations, or eating a huge hamburger. All driving limitations belong to OTHER people.

THIS POST IS NOT DIRECTED AGAINST ANY OF THE POSTERS IN THIS THREAD.

You should see me drive when I'm chatting without a telephone. I don't clear lanes before changing, I miss turns, and I drive over or under the speed limit if the cruise control is not on. For that reason I don't talk much when driving if there is much traffic.

But I can say this - almost every time in traffic that I get behind someone and wonder why they are drinking in the middle of the day, it turns out it's some biddy on a cellphone. ArrrrGGGGH!
10 Sep 2006 ~ 10:37pm RADA Well, not sure how we went from cell phones to government conspiracies, but here is a study by the University of Utah

Study

Mythbusters on the the Discovery Channel also conducted one of their Myth-busting challenges on using a cell phone while driving and exhibited the same results.

airbornflght wrote:

hmm. well, those are all different points of view than mine, but I still stand by my statement that it doesnt require your visual attention, which is what you need to drive. And I think of it as talking to a passenger in my car.

As far as a study saying that it is similar to a .08, I'm skeptical of who the study was conducted by, and for what institution. Because, I'm not much of a fan of special interest groups that conduct 'studies' and try to feed me lines, because I can make my own decisions. Kind of like smoking, I say let them smoke if they want to. and when it comes down to it, I think it should all come down to popular sovereignty that way the people really decide. Not the senators and congressmen who have untold motivations for voting the way that they do.
10 Sep 2006 ~ 11:19pm airbornflght I said nothing about government conspiracies. I simply said that not all law makers have the best of motivations for making the laws that they do.

Nor did I say that a telephone conversation was incapable of making me or anybody else somewhat less alert or capable of driving, I simply said that in my experience, with family and friends, I have never noticed a situation where I would tell someone to hangup and drive.

And yes, eating while you are driving, or reading a map is just as distracting, if not more; and that is also part of my argument. My question is this, why not just outlaw everything that could possibly distract someone from their driving duties? Well, you really cant. People are gonna make mistakes and errors of judgment and there isn't a whole lot that we can do about it. Because I doubt the people ignorant to drive erratically while driving are going to care much about a small fine on the rare chance that they get caught. I mean, if you really want to look at it, I thought a lady in a minivan was gonna slide into my lane and hit me from the side today because she was turned around yelling at her kids going down the road, not even paying attention to where she was going. I just sped up and got away from her.

and im not pointing fingers at anyone or saying that anyones opinion is bad, I just find it hard to believe that not a one of you have picked up the phone while driving, thats all.
11 Sep 2006 ~ 1:59am TheLostSwede Around $600 here if you get caught. Another $300 for the belt and it's an expensive phonecall.
11 Sep 2006 ~ 2:39am muddocktor Have I talked on my cellphone while driving? Yes, but I use a headset instead of having a hand stuck to the side of my head. Plus, I make it a point to end any conversation when I get to where the traffic starts getting heavy, because I find that even with the headset, it's hard to give the proper concentration to driving in a crowded situation while trying to hold a phone conversation. If I really need to talk to them that badly, I will find a place to pull over and talk.
11 Sep 2006 ~ 4:01pm V-P

KwitCo™ wrote:

The hands-free law has been in effect in NY State for a while now, and unfortunately nobody takes it seriously. Just today I saw a woman go right through a red light while on her cell phone.

Yea, we use to live there, and it's pretty tight where we use to live. Most people in NYC and surrounding suburbs have a hands-free now anyway, so it's not a big problem, just like the seatbelt law isn't much of a problem in that area anymore.
When I lived in NY, back when I was about 7 years old, I was riding my bike on the street I lived in, which was pretty out of the way for most people, but some guy was going through, and I was right there in front of me and he almost hit me. Had I gone a tiny bit slower, he would have hit me. It wasn't my fault either.
21 Sep 2006 ~ 2:59pm WISKINITA recently went to cali and found that they are the WORLD'S WORST DRIVERS period. I'm from Texas, and in no way is this state the safest place to drive with all the drunks and heavy equipment on the rural roads (a leading cause of most traffic related deaths here). But for some reason, Cali drivers tend to being going the speed limit down the highway, and then hit the breaks to slow down about 10-15 mph FOR NO REASON. The rental car I borrowed probably had to have a new breaking system installed. This is the weirdest thing I have ever seen. STOP, GO, STOP, GO on an unobstructed highway! As I would pass on very numerous occasions, I could find no reason what-so-ever for the sudden slow downs. I still don't understand that. I even got in the right hand lane to allow a driver to pass (he was tailgating) and was coming up on an 18 wheeler. The driver passed pretty quickly so I merged back into the left hand lane behind him and he hit his breaks hard and I almost slammed into the back of him. There wasn't one car or obstuction in front of him period!! Must have gotten an incoming call on the cell........
21 Sep 2006 ~ 3:14pm Sledgehammer70

WISKINITA wrote:

recently went to cali and found that they are the WORLD'S WORST DRIVERS period.

You haven't been to Phoenix Arizona have you? I thought CA was bad until I went to AZ.