In NZ, we have a law that it's illegal to drive without due care and attention. We don't bother with a special law for cellphones, another for tuning the radio, another for eating breakfast while driving, another for checking makeup in the mirror, another for looking at the view, another .... you get the idea.
<Although I shake my head at California's excessive nanny state stupidity, they've passed one law that I applaud them for. >
What a stupid law. It was already illegal to crash into somebody else while driving without due care and attention.
Now, perfectly sensible people, will incur all sorts of costs because they aren't able to communicate. There should of course be a law that it's illegal for a driver to talk or listen to a passenger while driving. It should be illegal [for you to be consistent] for any sounds to be made inside a car. No radio. No passengers talking.
I have driven for 45 years and have NEVER nearly been "nearly nailed" by somebody using a cellphone, let alone 3 times in the last 3 months. I have seen people talking on cellphones who were not doing a good job of keeping their vehicles on track, but there have always been hordes of those.
I learned how to drive defensively, and aggressively, [45 years ago] and have only been got once in that time by a dopey old guy who simply turned in front of me into a parking place on the other side of the road. He got a dented mudguard and I got a bent front of the car. Our young son learned the value of seat belts [except that he was standing up in a harness]. He hadn't like wearing it, but from then on, he was happy to not go flying forwards. So it was a useful crash to teach the importance of being securely restrained. In those days, children didn't have to be restrained in the back seat [if I remember rightly].
If you are nearly getting nailed so frequently, you are perhaps not driving defensively. Presumably you have nearly been nailed many times before that too, because cellphones have been endemic for decades. If you are driving well, then you must be the unluckiest person alive to have such frequent near-nailing.
I find I can drive while eating breakfast, talking on a hand-held cellphone, listening to the radio, reading the newspaper and taking notes while steering with my knees.
Sometimes I have to put breakfast down while talking on the phone because I run out of hands and my voice gets muffled. And I admit I'm not actually listening to the radio while on the phone because normally I need to pay more attention to the person on the phone, so I use another hand to turn down the radio. And it's true I'm not reading the newspaper or list of things to do while talking on the phone and turning the radio.
I used to hold a one year old to show them how to drive, while talking on the cellphone, but I don't do that now because there are air bags and if one of those went off, it would make a real mess. Safety devices can be very dangerous and have killed and injured plenty of children.
Thanks for warning me about nanny state California's new law. When I arrive at LAX and get a rental car, I admit I don't read all 450 kg of road laws before setting out. So I could easily have been arrested and imprisoned as an enemy alien, no habeas corpus, and water-boarded to force me to give away Osama's address.
Californians voted that they can't chew gum and walk a straight line at the same time. That's strikes me as quite funny. Driving a car is much easier than walking. You don't even have to balance. Just go left and right and push the stop lever.
It doesn't seem a good idea to use laws instead of brains to do the driving. It will lead to problems. Have you got a law that it's illegal to tune the radio while driving? How about one for not smoking while driving? How about not talking or listening to passengers?
Really, it's just bossy Luddites in action.
Mqurice |
