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As promised, the NYPD cracked down on drivers talking on cell phones yesterday, issuing approximately 4,000 tickets by the time the evening rush hour began. According to the Post, police typically issue about 500 such tickets on a normal day. One of the unlucky thousands caught up in the dragnet was a Daily News reporter assigned to cover the ticket blitz; after getting a call from his editor, Edgar Sandoval heard "the dreaded police siren." He futilely tried to talk his way out of it by saying, "Funny story, Officer. I'm actually working on a story about this for the paper."
CBS2 also sent a reporter out to cover the story, and unlike Sandoval he intentionally tried to attract police by driving from the Upper East Side down to the Village holding a cell phone to his ear. (But no "luck.") Drivers seemed uniformly outraged by blitz. Cabdriver Alejandro Martinez told the Post he's been ticketed twice for cellphone use. "Of course people not paying attention causes accidents, but sometimes there is an emergency. The police should give a warning." Funny fact: TLC regulations forbid taxi drivers from using even hands-free cellphones while driving!
The tickets can cost each driver $120, so the city could potentially rake in at least $480,000 from the dragnet. After taking his medicine, Sandoval commiserated with other ticketed drivers, showing one his ticket, and saying, "We're in the same boat." Cellidarity? He then witnessed delivery driver Jerome Pascal get arrested for driving with a suspended license. His brother, Eugene Pascal, was visibly distraught, telling the News, "He's driving using his cell phone one second and gets arrested the next. It's unfair." The National Safety Council says cell phone use contributes to an estimated 6 percent of all crashes, and 2,600 deaths each year.
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Well, that's one way to make money for the city...
"He's driving using his cell phone one second and gets arrested the next. It's unfair."
Considering how many deadly accidents seem to be caused by drivers with suspended licenses, I really hope somebody smacked this ass upside the head after he said that crap.
Also, I had no idea cabbies aren't supposed to talk on the phone while they drive. I'll be sure to use that against the next one who ignores my directions.
It's about time they started cracking down. New Yorkers can barely drive as it is
New Yorkers drive fine. It's the clueless and scared shitless B&Ters who fuck up city driving for the rest of us.
NYC can't pawn off all it's problems on the dreaded B&T monster. Although, not surprisingly, I know you will try.
http://bumperstickers.cafepress.com/item/cell-phone-up-your-ass-sticker-bumper/157476510
I ma all for the crackdown. Is it so difficult to set up a hands free device in the car (Not just a bluetooth)!?
Exactly. There are so many affordable hands free options that there is no excuse.
Affordable? Every last cellphone comes with a free wired microphone/earpiece and you get a replacement for a dollar.
True, but I meant the hands free Bluetooth speaker for cars.
Me, my phone has voice dialing and speaker phone, so I'm good.
According to what I've read, it makes little difference whether hands-free devices are used: talking on a cell phone increases the chance of a crash about the same as driving drunk. I've also noticed that pedestrians, skaters and cyclists become similarly incapacitated, but they're not driving hundreds of pounds of metal around.
Enforcing driving laws? What a novel concept!
They should be doing this EVERY DAY! Cracking down on the numerous bad drivers would make the city safer and richer!
I wish they would ban people from using those hands free sets, too.
I remember when people had to pull over and use a pay phone when they wanted to make a call. And if I remember correctly, people were able to lives their lives just fine.
Modern technology is a wonderful thing, but there's already enough things that can go wrong when behind the wheel.
The cell phone keeps them company on long trips and they need to know if they have to pick up a quart of milk on the way home and that they are only a block away so get ready for their arrival and that Jean went to the mall today to get a new blouse and did you realize that Carl and Mary are going to the flower show this weekend and that...
All very important stuff that needs to get communicated NOW!
Cabdriver Alejandro Martinez is a moron.
love the crack down. increase safety and increase revenue. Catching people driving without licenses or on suspended licenses or with warrents for uppaid tickets is just a bonus.
I would love a littering ticket blitz, double that for a subway littering ticket blitz. A week of blitz and that would take a chunk out of the MTA budget woes.
Funny. I was shooting under the BQE yesterday in Williamsburg and I saw the same cop car pull over at least 5 people in the 15 minutes that I was there. I guess this explains it.
You want to see a mobile phone driving nightmare, try driving along Coney Island in Brooklyn on a Sunday. Hasids, cell phones, and cars do not mix.
I don't see that happening on a Saturday or even Friday nights. What gives?
Hallelujah! You said it & let's not forget the triple parking let alone double.
"Drivers seemed uniformly outraged by blitz."
I'm a driver, and I'm thrilled. I wish they'd also put the effort into double-parking on the Avenues in Brooklyn. It's like a slalom course in Bay Ridge.
Love the indignation these people have. I'm tired of people driving like idiots because they can't put the cell phone down for a second and just drive. I'm all for this crack down. I also don't understand why the reporter thinks he's getting a free pass for covering this story??
Funny thing about driving while on the cellphone; some people are still crappy drivers when they aren't talking on the phone.
For all but the truly important people, cell phones are little more than baby monitors for idiots.
Could you have your people get back to my people regarding a meeting to discuss this matter?
See, there you go! If everyone just kept in touch through their "people," they wouldn't need cell phones.
It's not that hard to pull over and make a call. The few times there has been no convenient space I just pulled in front of a fire hydrant. Once a cop came up to me to tell me to move but when I told him I pulled over to make a call he just left me alone.
I got pegged once for talking on my phone while driving and I sure as hell learned my lesson. It's just not worth it.
However, it continues to boggle my mind that i can still text if I want to. That has to be ten times more dangerous.
It is not illegal to be stopped at a hydrant as long as you are in the vehicle.
MT, I'm pretty sure it's illegal to text while driving.
Nope, the current law was passed in 2001, before cell phones had text capability (there were texting pagers available). There have been proposals to change the law to cover texting but as it reads now it bans using a "hand-held cellular telephone to engage in a call while driving."
"Using" is specifically defined in the statute as holding the phone to or in the immediate proximity of the user's ear, and "engaging in a call" as including listening or speaking but not including holding the phone to "initiate a function" or to activate or deactivate it. So there's no way the current language can be taken to apply to texting.
I have gotten so used to speaking on the phone hands free, I use my headset most of the time I use my phone... Driving or not!
One time, in a heavy rain storm, I asked a cab driver not to use his non-hands-free cell phone. He demurred. I mentioned that it's illegal. He disagreed, patiently explaining that it's only not legal if a police officer sees you. Otherwise, it's legal.
I pretty much appreciated his logic.
the funny thing is, people who *do* bother to pull over to talk on their phones often use bike lanes to do this...it's hard to get mad at someone blocking a bike lane when they have supposedly done so in the interest of safety (although blocking a bike lane doesn't make things safer for bikers...)
"He's driving using his cell phone one second and gets arrested the next. It's unfair."
The lesson there: while committing a more serious offense (driving with a suspended license is a misdemeanor that could potentially result in jail time, not a traffic violation), it's best not to also commit a minor offense that may draw attention. If you do, sorry, but being arrested is not "unfair."
I just got cut off in a crosswalk yesterday by a self-important bitch with cell phone held against her ear. I'm for even stiffer fines.
Get em coppers!
just get 5% tints! since cops don't really enforce tints, how can they see you with a cell phone by your head?
*Make sure you tint your front windshield too!
Ironically, if we wanted to crack down on the number of accident's - we'd make performing any secondary tasks such as talking via bluetooth, eating, reading, talking to someone else in the car, thinking about other things, and picking their nose illegal, too. The act of holding something to your ear isn't the problem, it's the cognitive disconnect that occurs from the distraction. (Notice older German cars rarely, if ever, have cup holders, while we need 30 to put our big chugs in?)
Paper from MIT: "no significant differences in reaction
time were observed between normal driving and driving with cell phone use and no general improvement in reaction time was observed for hands-free cell phone and hand-held cell phone use." (http://ttt.media.mit.edu/impact/marinovadeverauxhans.pdf)
AAA Research - "The most common sources of distraction cited in these crashes were an outside person, object, or event (29.4% of crash-involved drivers); adjusting the radio, cassette, or CD (11.4%), passengers (10.9%). Distraction related to the use of a cell phone was cited in 1.5% of crashes." (http://n5fdl.com/storage/cellphonesanddrivingreport.pdf)
Research group at U of Iowa: "The effectiveness of cell phone legislation is still being studied, and no substantial conclusions have yet been reached. Because most research suggests that hands-free phones are just as likely to be a factor in accidents as hand-held phones, the effectiveness of legislation banning only hand-held phones is uncertain. Research indicates that while New York experienced an initial decline in driver cell phone use after banning hand-held devices in 2001 (2.3% to 1.1% of drivers at any given time), rates had increased to near pre-ban levels (2.1%) by 2003.13" (http://www.uiowa.edu/~ipro/Papers%202006/distracteddriving122906.pdf)
Ban it all!
...or I suppose we could stiffen our licensing requirements and penalties to actually get bad drivers off the road, rather than simply fining them. But damnit, this is 'merica, it's our right to drive, even if we're bad at it!