DC bans cell phone use while driving

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

Well not so much bans it, but places your ankles behind your ears.

$100 fine and 1 point on your license if you are caught driving while talking on a cell phone.

Extremely bass ackwards, they should have done more severe penalties only if you are caught speeding/running red light/accident while on the phone.

Oh well, atleast they still only have a 10 question test to get your learners and two weeks of driving for a license - that helps keep the roads safe!
-SW

[Sandman]

At first, I thought this would be a pain but hell... the Pentagon isn't even in DC.

[rpm]

Wulfe, what you don't understand is this will give police probable cause to stop more vehicles. The result will be more arrests and fines on violations they find AFTER the stop. I think that anyone who uses a cell phone without hands-free is an idiot...including my sister with her famous "talking on the cell phone, smoking a cigarette, playing with the radio, steering with elbow" driving style. She scares me.

[Bluedog]

Been that way here for ages, get caught yapping while you should be driving, and they'll fine you.

Simple solution....hands free kit.

Seriously, do you honestly believe that having one hand and whole lot of your concentration focused elsewhere is a good idea while in control of a tonne or so of moving metal?  I dont.

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

Actually, you can use a hands free set... but that is really no different than just holding the damn phone. Especially since most people go into autopilot mode to concentrate on the conversation rather than the road and vehicles around them.

In any event, I don't think the fine should be for simply driving while yapping - but if you speed/make illegal turns/run red lights/get into an accident, you lose your license if you are talking on the phone.

I hate talking on the phone in the first place, but when someone calls me and the conversation goes over fifteen seconds - I tell 'em "I'm driving here, I'll call you later." This law doesn't effect me, I just hate the idea of making new laws that are poorly thought through.
-SW

[Nilsen]

Its been banned here for a long time, you have to use handsfree (or take your chanses). There has been alot less cellphone related accident.

[Sandman]

It all started three years ago. Some kid was driving on 495 and he killed a woman while talking on a cellphone. What the journalists also failed to mention (quite frequently) was that the guy was also driving 100 miles per hour.

[xrtoronto]

Originally posted by Bluedog
Been that way here for ages, get caught yapping while you should be driving, and they'll fine you.
 

same here too

[J_A_B]

"Seriously, do you honestly believe that having one hand and whole lot of your concentration focused elsewhere is a good idea while in control of a tonne or so of moving metal? I dont."


I have never seen anyone complain about people who use CB radios, which arguably require more concentration than a cell phone.  Those have been in common use since the 1960's.  

My Cadillac had one, and I'll install in the Buick sooner or later.  It really is a nice tool to have if you do much freeway driving.


Of course you also don't usually see a parent with 5 kids in the minivan chatting on the CB, lol.  


J_A_B

[cpxxx]

Talking on a mobile (cellphone) while driving is dangerous. I know, I was talking to my girl on the phone in traffic, I had to brake suddenly. The guy behind braked hard too and the guy behind him, not hard enough though, crunch, he rearended him. I said to her, 'I'll call back' and slunk off.  Now I know better.

I often see cars veering all over the road. Usually it's either a drunk or a woman on a mobile. Reformed mobile user as I am I blast them with the horn which usually does the trick. The laws the same here, a fine and points. But due to a quirk in the law the police aren't strictly allowed to use their radios. Oops:o

[lada]

are you alowed to use handsfree w/o fine ?

its same here, untill you have not hands free.

[DmdBT]

So when are they going to ban eating or (non alcoholic) drinking while operating a vehicle? Isn't it just as dangerous for someone to have their face buried in a super-size coke with a McFatass Burger and fries while attempting to navigate our already road-rage infested little-willy big truck/gay ricer Vin Diesel wanna be punk streets?

[rpm]

Originally posted by DmdBT
So when are they going to ban eating or (non alcoholic) drinking while operating a vehicle? Isn't it just as dangerous for someone to have their face buried in a super-size coke with a McFatass Burger and fries while attempting to navigate our already road-rage infested little-willy big truck/gay ricer Vin Diesel wanna be punk streets?

In Texas there IS such a law, Inattention to Surroundings. They rarely enforce it. Any Texas PO's here to explain?

[RTStuka]

When I lived in NY you were required to use a hands free set, I didnt think it made much of a difference at first. Then I moved to Arizona and you dont need to use hands free here, well the first time I tried to talk and drive I almost drove off the road. I had done it a million times before NY banned it and never had a problem but it really does make a diffrence.

[storch]

Yet another example of the nanny state taking all the sharp edges out life.  DC is one of the capitals of American socialism,  why are you liberals whining,  Uncle Fed and the local nannies must save you from yourselves.

On a separate note I think that law should apply to women and girlymen in small femenine or hybrid cars only.  That would be a good law.