Don’t text and drive. Don’t email and drive. Don’t call and drive. Just don’t do anything while driving, except maybe listen to music. How important is that call that you’re willing to risk hitting another car, or worse yet hitting a pedestrian? I’m guilty of using my phone while driving, but only as a GPS unit. I’m too cheap to buy one of those suction cup enabled stands that clips to the wind shield. That being said though, I only drive one, maybe one and a half, months per year … when I’m back in America.
To the news at hand: Washington State passed a law banning mobile phone use while driving. In the 28 days since that law has passed, the state made $96,596 from nearly 800 tickets. That’s roughly $120 per citation. Of those nearly 800 tickets only 6% dealt with texting while driving, the rest were for talking while driving.
This begs the question, how exactly do police enforcers enforce a no texting while driving law? If they’re parked and watching cars drive by, can they really tell in a few milliseconds if someone is sending a message to their loved one to wait for them at home with a bottle of wine, a bottle of lubricant, and fresh batteries in the newly bought HD camcorder?
If the officer is supposed to check while he’s driving then isn’t he himself putting others at risk by not paying attention to the road?
These are questions state governments have to ask themselves, but again, I’m going to say this one more time, don’t be a jack ass. Just because you have a mobile phone, doesn’t mean you need to use it whenever it beeps or buzzes. You’re not a major celebrity or political figure. Chances are you don’t even own your own business. You’re just some guy, doing some job, for some company, who could be replaced by an off shore Indian if the damn labor laws were more flexible.
Remember that.
[Via: Textually]