AA's "Fat Flier" Got Whole Row
Ashley Dupre On Tiger Woods' Babes: "At Least I Kept My Mouth Shut"
Same-Sex Marriage Blame Game Aims at Paterson, Addabbo
Wife Tries To Abort And Poison Husband's Lovechild
Rihanna's Random Airport Search
The state law banning hand-held cell phone use while driving doesn’t extend to text messaging, something Councilman David Weprin, father of 16-year-old twin girls, would like to change fast. Motivated by last summer’s fatal accident in the Finger Lakes region, in which five girls in a sport utility vehicle died when the text-messaging teenage driver swerved into oncoming traffic, Weprin will introduce a measure today that would ban the sending or reading of text messages while driving within city limits, the Times reports. Alaska, Minnesota, New Jersey and Washington are the only states that currently ban text-messaging while driving.
“I suppose it’s just a matter of time before they try to ban smoking while driving,” scoffs Joseph Bast of the Heartland Institute. A similar bill pending in the state legislature would make Weprin’s proposal redundant, but he’s running for city comptroller and tells the Times he wants to call attention to a new service that encourages handicapped-accessible taxicab drivers to send a text message to the dispatcher when they’re available. (Passengers can now call 311 to request these cabs.)
Weprin says these text-messaging cabbies are “creating a very dangerous situation.” But taxi commissioner Matthew Daus insists that drivers "are required to pull over when using their texting devices." Right. Anyway, a recent survey found that New Yorkers lead the country in cell phone use while driving, with 70% of city drivers admitting they do it. And even disgraced former governor Elliot Spitzer copped to texting while driving according to court transcripts – though he quickly backpedaled and said, “I may have pulled over.”
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Right, and this will be enforced as efficiently as the law that prohibits people from driving an talking on their hand held cell phones. The penalty for that should be loss of the driver's license. If an accident occurs, possible jail time.
While we're at it, can we please ban texting while walking down Midtown sidewalks? Now that would be useful.
A law like this would not be needed if not for the selfishness of certain people and the sense of entitlement that they wear like an overcoat.
While we're at it, let's also ban makeup application and soup slurping while driving.
there are so many damn car accidents every day & so many damn people think they can multi-task & do everything else other than pay attention while they drive. Splicer is totally right.
Next bill up, a ban on folding origami while driving.
gawd - what a horrible city/state/country this is becoming where there are laws in place of common sense
why do people think they can drive without looking at the road? although i've seen drivers on cellphones, looking, but seeing nothing apparently (and rolling through red lights into intersections).
Laws are useless if they're not enforced.
This is just to discourage lawsuits probably.
agree with arsguide. Sad reflection on things when we need warning labels on grapes and laws to tell us that we shouldn't type while driving.
The fines for this wreckless behavior should be MUCH higher. The fine for cell phone use is only $100; it should be higher than that if the vehicle is in motion. Texting while driving is so much worse - it should be treated like a DWI.
Wouldn't this fall under the reckless driving law?
We really need to take stock of the laws we have before adding more.
The fines should include losing your license. Its not like you can accidentally talk or text on a cell phone while driving.
Sadly, you can't legislate Stupid.
If someone needs a Law to tell them NOT to text and drive at the same time, then they also need a law telling them to keep their eyes open while driving.
There is no limit to the dumb things people do. I once saw someone pulling out of a garage and reading a Filofax at the same time. I yelled something but either wasn't heard or ignored.
People who talk/text on their phones while driving are incredibly dangerous -- and yet I see people doing this (without headsets) all the time. It's infuriating how stupid people can be. Is hitting a pedestrian, cyclist or other car the only thing that will make them stop doing this?
Five upstate girls dead last year because the driver was texting:
http://www.asiaone.com/Motoring/Drivers/Learning/Story/A1Story20070724-19575.html
Texting is even worse that talking because it requires the driver to take his eyes off the road. How about $500 fines? Would that work?