no texting (while driving.)
effective january 1st, 2009, governor arnold schwarzenegger and the state of collie-fornia has a new year’s resolution for drivers: NO TEXTING while behind the wheel.
furthermore, if you’re caught breaking your resolution, expect a $20 fine for a first offense and $50 for a second offense. third offense? your texting device is confiscated and run over in the street by the citing officer.
in july of 2008, california lawmakers made it illegal to drive and talk on a cell phone (unless you have a hands free device, or blue-douche.)
a couple of weeks ago, on el cajon blvd, i witnessed a cop driving and chatting on his cell phone. i chuckled. speaking of, i laugh when i see drivers handle their phones a la motorola walkie-talkies (while snowboarding.) in other words, what’s hands free about holding a phone in speaker mode?
given the success of the hands free program, i do have a couple of questions about the forthcoming NO TEXTING law:
1. do facebook/twitter updates count? emoticons?
2. will citations be administered via text?
3. how will an officer decipher between dialing a number, texting, and playing with iFart app on my iPhone?
Joelle
Tuesday, 30th December 2008 at 9:20 am
I don’t quite get how they can tell. I still see people on their cell phone all the time and as you said, how can they tell the difference between dialing a number and texting? I don’t text *while* driving, but I do sometimes at stoplights, admittedly. But if I throw my phone in the seat unless a cop has it on tape, they can’t *prove* you were doing it, can they?
Eric Lee
Tuesday, 30th December 2008 at 9:33 am
Hi,
I’m just getting started with my new blog. Would you want to exchange links on our blog-rolls?
BTW - I’m up to about 100 visitors per day.