California hands-free mobile phone bill heads to Gov. Schwarzenegger
Sledgehammer70
California Icrontian
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.
Source: TGDaily
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 microphonesHands-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.
Source: TGDaily
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Comments
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
You haven't been to Phoenix Arizona have you? I thought CA was bad until I went to AZ.