Is it just me???

[greg g]

So perhaps I am the only one who finds this ironic. The wonderful legislature of New York passed a bill and the governor signed it into law.  Henceforth, those convicted of the offense of TEXTING WHILE DRIVING will now be subject to a minimum $150.00 fine, 5 points to your license (which will probably cause your insurance carrier to dis invite you from the favored customer rate) plus court costs and surcharge as a minimum. Pretty stiff stuff for what is a pretty much unenforceable statute, except for what an accident investigaton might turn up.  

 

Any way, to roll out the new law and likely its "enhanced enforcement" period, the powers that be are making state wide announcements  on portable lighted sign boards via SCROLLING TEXT MESSAGES along major highways.

 

Is it just me, or should somebody in Albany be getting a ticket??????

[Desotodav]

The fine attracts a $330 fine and 3 points from you licence here in Queensland (Australia) Greg. We have 12 points on an 'Open' licence. The term 'use' of mobile phone whilst driving includes performing any function of that phone - like turning it off, looking at the time etc.

[greg g]

Not against any distracted driving statutes, and the fine surcharge and costs probably get close to your 330.  and I believe our is 9 points and you go to probation.  But just don't this this will be effective, and using text messages to curtail text messages is somewhat oxymoronic.

Edited September 20, 2013 by greg g

[Young Ed]

In S Dakota they will confiscate your phone.

[JerseyHarold]

A better texting deterrent would be paying other drivers a commission if they turn in a texter.  I'd have made a fortune by now....

[TodFitch]

I'm not sure where ironic fits in. Based on the lousy driving of people who are on a cell phone or, worse, texting it seems like the local traffic enforcement officers will be able to pull them over without waiting for an accident.

 

To me the sad part is that enough people do texting to make it a problem that seems to need legal motivation to stop. Maybe I'm the only one, but I view driving a car as basically operating a heavy and fast piece of industrial equipment. You can really hurt someone, maybe even yourself, if you are not paying attention.

[greg g]

Todd my point on irony resides in text messages broadcast on the highway essentially commanding your attention away from the road while reading and comprehending the message;

 

"Any way, to roll out the new law and likely its "enhanced enforcement" period, the powers that be are making state wide announcements  on portable lighted sign boards via SCROLLING TEXT MESSAGES along major highways."  but like I said maybe its just me.................

Edited September 20, 2013 by greg g

[GlennCraven]

I see your point, Greg. It's the scrolling that demands protracted observation by the motorist who shouldn't have his attention diverted.

 

Years ago just on the Kansas side of the state line on I-35 in Kansas City, there was a big sign on a hillside warning people to pay attention to school buses or something like that. Except the sign showed a very realistic bus on a highway, and was positioned on a curve such that the first time I approached it I almost yanked the steering wheel on impulse, thinking traffic was headed straight for me.

 

That seemed like a really dumb "safety" sign.

Edited September 20, 2013 by GlennCraven

[DJ194950]

If Ca. had unmaked patrol cars like many states they could double -triple??- the state income from Just fines by ticketing cell phone use while driving in no less than 2 months.

Take that fine and add the Now additional FEES (not taxes mind you) amlost any ticket will be amost triple the stated fine (as passed by the legistrature). Fees do NOT have to approved by the Gov. Legistrature!

 

Quick end end to our Gov. revenue shortage. Might stop some, but not enough. Continous state revenue- keep taxes lower!

 

Doug

[Don Coatney]

Makes me glad I dont know how to text.

[Dan Hiebert]

I certainly see the irony in Greg's post.  NY seems to excel at such things, like championing 2nd amendment rights out of one side of the mouth, then banning virtually every firearm out the other (that's not a position, that's just an observation)(that same law also outlawed anything that "has the potential to be used as a weapon" - try ordering a pocketknife from out of state).  I knew my irony meter was in for a workout when we first moved to NY, within the first week a truck load of chickens overturned in Buffalo.  SPCA scrambled their emergency response units to secure the chickens and take them to the vet, to ensure they weren't traumatized or injured - so they could continue their trip to the slaughterhouse. 

 

I'm all for the proactive texting-while-driving laws, I have to jump into a ditch almost every time I'm out for a run because texting or cellphone using drivers are heading right for me or veering off the road, and I've learned another defensive driving technique - watch the drivers of the other cars (if you can see them) to see if they are on their cellphones or texting.  My wife was hit by a texting driver this past Monday (no injuries, but our shiney new Durango aint so shiney anymore).  It seems like such an obvious threat to safe driving, yet so many people still do it.  Like driving drunk, I guess, there's always someone that'll do it regardless of consequences.

 

I'm with Don.  I don't to that social media thing anyway.  Only reason I have a cellphone is because Uncle Sam makes me.  

[Big_John]

I drive a lot. Between work and personal, I do about 30K miles a year.

 

I see texting drivers all the time and have had a couple close calls because of them.

 

I see the irony of Greg's post, but I gotta say that the average driver that is texting probably doesn't know they passed the law. Reading it on the sign is probably the only way they are going to even know that.

 

NY State also did this when they enacted the "Move over" law where you have to change lanes when you go around emergency vehicles. From my observation, that law seems to be working as drivers do move over now and the only ones not moving over have out of state plates on their cars. So, I would say the signs must have helped.

[TodFitch]

. . . NY State also did this when they enacted the "Move over" law where you have to change lanes when you go around emergency vehicles. From my observation, that law seems to be working as drivers do move over now and the only ones not moving over have out of state plates on their cars. So, I would say the signs must have helped.

 

Interesting. California enacted a "move over" law in the last couple of years. I wonder if various states compare notes about new traffic laws. Seems like laws on things like "move over" or cellphone/texting seem to get enacted by many states around the same time.

 

If I recall correctly, moving over for any vehicle or person on the side of the highway (if safe to do so) was recommended way back when I had driver's education and driver's training in high school. And it is something I've made a point of doing for all the decades since then. Seems a bit odd that they now feel it requires a law. But I guess it just goes to show that "common sense" is very uncommon.

[Frank Elder]

I direct traffic for a road construction company...yeah that ass with the stop/slow sign.........one day I counted 63 cars in a row before 1 went by that wasn't texting or calling...steering knees in action eyes off the road...here if you get in a wreck they take your phone and check if you were using it at the time of the happening.

[Captain Neon]

If Ca. had unmaked patrol cars like many states they could double -triple??- the state income from Just fines by ticketing cell phone use while driving in no less than 2 months.

Take that fine and add the Now additional FEES (not taxes mind you) amlost any ticket will be amost triple the stated fine (as passed by the legistrature). Fees do NOT have to approved by the Gov. Legistrature!

 

Quick end end to our Gov. revenue shortage. Might stop some, but not enough. Continous state revenue- keep taxes lower!

 

Doug

Do you really think that taxes will get lower?  They will spend this new "windfall" on some thing else, and continue to tax every one for the "essentials."

[1950 Special Deluxe]

I direct traffic for a road construction company...yeah that ass with the stop/slow sign.........one day I counted 63 cars in a row before 1 went by that wasn't texting or calling...steering knees in action eyes off the road...here if you get in a wreck they take your phone and check if you were using it at the time of the happening.

We had a young girl killed here last year that working as a flag girl.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/flag-person-killed-on-sask-highway-was-pregnant-1.1136004

[Captain Neon]

Interesting. California enacted a "move over" law in the last couple of years. I wonder if various states compare notes about new traffic laws. Seems like laws on things like "move over" or cellphone/texting seem to get enacted by many states around the same time.

 

Nation-wide special interest groups pressure legislatures en masse with suggested pieces of legislation to enact.  This is why they happen at about the same time with similar language.  When I worked for a legislator when I was in college, we got letters from constituents all the time that had suggested legislation.  Funny thing is they all had the exact same wording.

[Captain Neon]

We had a young girl killed here last year that working as a flag girl.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/flag-person-killed-on-sask-highway-was-pregnant-1.1136004

 

You still have flag girls in Canada?  Can they still wear shorts?  I remember back in the day they hired cute girls that wanted work on their tans as flag girls.  I know I would pay better attention to the sign if there was an attractive young lady holding it.  All we have are the dweeby nephew of the road contractor or his dim-witted toothless dykey aunt.

[Big_John]

Interesting. California enacted a "move over" law in the last couple of years. I wonder if various states compare notes about new traffic laws. Seems like laws on things like "move over" or cellphone/texting seem to get enacted by many states around the same time.

 

If I recall correctly, moving over for any vehicle or person on the side of the highway (if safe to do so) was recommended way back when I had driver's education and driver's training in high school. And it is something I've made a point of doing for all the decades since then. Seems a bit odd that they now feel it requires a law. But I guess it just goes to show that "common sense" is very uncommon.

 It seems common sense to me too... and that's how I learned to drive.... but some people aren't smart enough to get it. They probably never changed a tire on the side of the road with traffic roaring by.

 

After losing some NYS Troopers and a rash of tow truck operators, they had to do something. If that's what it takes... then that's what it takes.

 

One of our employee's ladyfriend (60 ish and old enough to know better) got a ticket a couple months ago.

[Big_John]

I was driving the NYS Thruway for work today and in the last few days they've put up signs saying "text stop" at the rest stops and parking areas along the Thruway.

[Dan Hiebert]

Depending on the contract, flaggers make more than most of us. $20-40 bucks an hour here in NY. A friend's daughter hired on to a road construction company to help with school costs. He relayed what she makes to me and now the gears are turning for how to earn beer money when I retire. I don't look very good in shorty-shorts, tho....

Last NYS Trooper killed by someone not moving over was here in Buffalo, he was a friend. I learned to move over when I learned to drive, so its second nature to me. Call me old-fashioned, but I pull over and stop when emergency vehicles come down the road, too. It always seems to take a tragedy to make laws that attempt to force common sense on some drivers, while others had it all along.

[Captain Neon]

I was an EMT for 8 years and have changed three tyres on the side of the road (one was mine, I was a passenger for an other, and third was a stranded motorist).  I've changed a few more in parking lots for the stranded.  Changing lanes and slowing down for vehicles on the side of the road, and pulling over for emergency vehicles seems like just good defensive driving habits.  I remember the days when you could safely stop to help a stranded motorist too, but thanks to Ted Bundy and cell phones those days are pretty much over too.  I stopped helping stranded motorists when I got taken to court after helping a lady with a flat tyre.  The last tyre jockey that put her rim on had crossthreaded her wheel bolt, but I managed to get the wheel off for her.  I notified her of the damaged bolt, and recommended that she have that repaired when she had her flat tyre fixed.  She sued me for the damages caused by some one else.  The judge found in my favour and scolded the woman for suing a good samaritan, but I still had to take a day off work to prevent a default judgment against me.  It's just too expensive to help any one nowadays.