California bans 16- and 17-year old drivers from cell phone use: why stop there?
California teenagers must hate living in the state right now. A new law will take effect on July 1, 2008, which will ban the use of cell phones, even with a hands-free setup, for 16- and 17-year olds. That same day another California law will require all other drivers to use hands-free devices when talking on their cell phones while driving.
The reason for the ban among 16- and 17-year olds? The popularity of text messaging among that group, as well as the fact that first year drivers already have enough problems driving without added distractions.
"The simple fact is that teenage drivers are more easily distracted. They are young, inexperienced and have a slower reaction time," Schwarzenegger said in a statement Thursday after he signed the legislation into law. "We want to eliminate any extra distractions so they can focus on paying attention to the road and being good drivers."
However, since most say that text messaging should be completely banned while driving, not just for a certain age group, why stop there? I don't mean, of course, we should completely ban cell phone use while driving (though that is a thought), but at least put into effect a law against text messaging or emailing while driving, for all ages. In fact, outlaw any fiddling around with hand-held devices while driving.
Let's face it, tuning your MP3 player or fiddling with the web browser on your iPhone - all distracting. I would like to see voice dialing on all cell phones as well; the iPhone lacks it and a friend of mine was discussing how hard it was to dial while driving, with the lack of a hard keyboard and voice dialing.
These sorts of things may not have been confirmed to have caused traffic fatalities yet (although there have been incidents where text messaging was suspected) - but they will eventually, if we don't stop distracting ourselves so much.
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9 comments:
why not ban 16 and 17 yr olds from driving at all?
I say it's about time.I have and use a cell phone, but always pull to the side of the road.I would like to see a nation wide ban on driving and cell phones.I also have seen young girls run red lights, and when I blow my horn to wake them up, they just laugh.Ask yourself, what in your life is so important, it won't keep till you can safely make a call.just think.
Exactly! Why stop there? Why ban only teen motorists from cell phone use, and only in California? There should be a nationwide ban on ALL cell phone use and text-ing behind the wheel, regardless of how old the motorist is.
Talking/Text-ing while driving poses a serious threat to highway and traffic safety in much the same way that an intoxicated driver does. Motorists have a right to operate their vehicles on safe roadways and should not have that right interfered by people that are perhaps too insecure to hang up the phone and save the yaking until they home.
I'm hoping for the day when some phone toting fool crashes into me anywhere on the roadways. Off to Court we will go!
Let's just outlaw 16-17 year olds! What good do they do? They make bad smells and they spread MTV attitude all over the place! LOL!
I hope Ohio (where I live) and the other 48 states follow Califor-nia's lead. But all of them need to go one step further, and ban the use of cell phones while driv- ing for all drivers, regardless of age. They are more of a distrac- tion than all the outrageously loud music and/or car full of friends will ever be.
Go California!!! You have led the way in many other things, continue that trend. You have my whole hearted support. And yes, I own a cell phone.
WHys is this not a law already???? i thought it was alaw already. i dont see why anyone would argue that anyone especially 16 and 17 vyear olds have the right to text ands drive at the same time.
I was just in New Jersey where I go to from Calif. to visit family. In 2005 when I was there, the new law restricting anyone from driving while using a cell phone was newly in place. The two weeks I was there at that time I same almost no one using cell phones and driving. Now in the summer of '07 I observed many NJ drivers talking on cell phones with seeming impunity. The bottom line is that if enough people break the cell phone law then there's not enough police to enforce the law. The law becomes unenforceable. How many 18-20 year olds are the Calif. police going to stop only to find that the drivers are not breaking the law? In a few months they will just give up just like in NJ.
Why a new law? It's called "DRIVING WHILE DISTRACTED" and it is OBVIOUSLY not being inforced in CA or anywhere else, just like any number of good, solid laws that are being ignored in the pursuit of the "make a new law, make a statement" attitude in our lawmaker's minds!
If anybody would bother to read the causes of most distracted driver wrecks, you would see that many more are caused by talking to passengers, turning around and correcting kids in the back seat, eating, adjusting the AC or heater or radio, putting a CD into the CD player than are caused by using the cell phone. Banning cell phones has more to do about politicians trying to appear caring, than the actual caring. Want to really cut down wrecks from distractions? Ban fast food windows; make a radio/CD player that cannot be adjusted (volume, channel, track, etc) while the car is in gear; make AC/heaters in cars that cannot be adjusted when the car is in gear; ticket people who talk to their passengers. And by the way - I am not a teen - just somebody who takes the time to read the reports on what really causes accidents in this nation!
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