Currently —
6 states — California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington, plus the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands — prohibit drivers from using handheld cell phones while driving. All but Washington have primary enforcement.
19 states, the District of Columbia and Guam now ban text messaging by drivers. The 19 are Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. All but four — Louisiana, New York, Virginia and Washington — have primary enforcement.
Primary enforcement means the handheld/texting offense is reason alone for a citation. Secondary enforcement means the offense can be cited in conjunction with some other traffic offense.
A statewide ban on handheld cell phones and texting failed in the New Mexico Senate during the recent 30-day legislative session. Both are prohibited in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Gallup, Española and Taos, however.
“[N]o person shall operate a motor vehicle upon a public highway while using a mobile telephone to engage in a call or create, send or read text messages while such vehicle is in motion.” Hands-free phones are exempt. You are presumed guilty of making or receiving a call if the phone is “in the immediate proximity of” your ear.
In Albuquerque it’s $100 the first time; $200 each successive offense. In Santa Fe, $100. If I were a police officer I could pick up an easy $1000 for the city just driving between here and I-25 (six miles) on any given day. Why is this law so cavalierly violated?
OK, but if I were to pull over every ABQ cop I typically saw yakking on a cell while operating his patrol car in one day, I could double that $1000.
I think people don’t take the law seriously because it’s kinda ridiculous. It’s cherry-picking. Let’s make this particular distraction illegal while we ignore all the others. Eating, applying makeup, screwing with dash controls/nav systems/radios, dealing with kids in the back seat, digging for CDs, etc. Hell, I’ve seen people watching movies and reading–magazine propped against steering wheel–while driving. How many of those activities are illegal? I think only one (watching a movie).
And then to ratchet up the level of ridiculousness, let’s make it illegal to use the phone only when it’s held in one’s hand. Even though it’s proven that handsfree use is no less distracting.
I don’t really have a solution other than lumping driving while distracted under reckless driving, and I realize that would be awfully hard to enforce. Much easier to eyeball a phone held to an ear. Not more effective, mind you–just easier. Not to mention more lucrative.
To clarify: It’s not that I’m for using a cell while driving. It’s just that I think the manner in which the problem is being addressed is inconsistent and well, stupid.
On point: Chrysler makes watching your favorite TV show in your car easier than ever”
So I was complaining the other day to the husband about why don’t police actually crack down on people. I still see people ALL the time yakking and texting and weaving all over.
His reply was probably closest to the truth. Paraphrasing, the laws have the most effect when there has been a crash that can be attributed to using a mobile. It assigns blame and makes using the phone an actionable offense.
Doesn’t really give me hope when I see all manner of flouting the law going on….
11 Reasons to Ban Cell-Phone Use While Driving