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Chuck Anziulewicz
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I must agree wholeheartedly with the first two letters. Too many times have I seen another driver on the interstate with a cell phone pressed to her ear, laughing and smiling and yakking away, completely oblivious to the other vehicles around her, while her SUV goes careening back and forth through rush hour traffic.
And please don't tell me that holding a cell phone and carrying on a conversation while driving is no worse than sipping a Coke or changing the radio station. Taking a bite of a burger takes virtually no conscious thought, but when you're on the phone with someone, you're in a separate reality with that person, and your attention to the road will be severely diminished.
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shocked
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Hey, they didn't listen to the voters when they increased spending and raised our taxes through the roof either. Its time to clean out the peoples' house and start fresh!
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brstevens
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Agreed, Chuck. Whenever I see someone on the road doing something boneheaded I bet 95% of the time he or she is yakking away on a phone and not eating or holding a cup of coffee or staring at herself in the mirror.
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Little Brother watches
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shocked wrote: Hey, they didn't listen to the voters when they increased spending and raised our taxes through the roof either. Its time to clean out the peoples' house and start fresh! keep government small enough to fit in our cars as it were?
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Bill
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CHuck and Co., you stated in your own words "laughing and smiling and yakking away, completely oblivious to the other vehicles around her, while her SUV goes careening back and forth through rush hour traffic."
So the hands free would not prevent them from being oblivious to the world, it is not the holding of the phone that makes them oblivious, but yet the conversation.
Also people eatging drinking etc while driving should be banned too, you spill coffee, your gonna swerve, reaching in the bag for your burger, can't be looking at the road, reading directions to a place, not looking, lets ban everything in cars-including the radio and kids under what--12, for the safety of us all.
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brstevens
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Bill wrote: CHuck and Co., you stated in your own words "laughing and smiling and yakking away, completely oblivious to the other vehicles around her, while her SUV goes careening back and forth through rush hour traffic."
So the hands free would not prevent them from being oblivious to the world, it is not the holding of the phone that makes them oblivious, but yet the conversation.
Also people eatging drinking etc while driving should be banned too, you spill coffee, your gonna swerve, reaching in the bag for your burger, can't be looking at the road, reading directions to a place, not looking, lets ban everything in cars-including the radio and kids under what--12, for the safety of us all. Fair enough, we can't ban everything to protect us from ourselves, but how about making cell phone talking, reading, texting, eating, etc. an aggravating factor if someone is found to have been doing something distracting while causing an accident and having charges/penalties increased? I don't think that'd be unreasonable.
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Surf52
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So I guess the clowns in Annapolis won't mind me picking up a six pack for the ride home, since studies show that has the same effect as cell phone use. If I get stopped, I'll just have them call my delegate.
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Bucktail
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The fact is that even in the states that have passed cell phone bans, their traffic fatalities have NOT decreased at all. When then legislate something just for the sake of doing it?
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Bill
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BR it could be a good idea, here is the pessimist side, it would be a judgement call by the Officers on the scene, and that gets sketchy. Esp say you hit a guy that cuts you off just bc he was a bad driver, you were driving in your lane etc. but eating a burger, is it your fault? this is why that would be a tough law.
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Bob
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Why don't we just stop talking on the phone while driving. Do we need yet ANOTHER law on the books. We must have 20 million by now. Do we need the government to tell us EVERYTHING we can and cannot, should or should not do? I personally have never heard of ,or know of, anyone who was involved in a accident because they were talking on the phone. Even so, I still try to avoid talking while driving. I don't need the government telling me of yet another thing that is "BANNED". If we don't stop asking the government to protect us from EVERYTHING, they are going to oblige us. Before you know it, we will be told where we can live, where we can drive to, who we can talk to and where we can work. This of course will be for our own good, as we asked them to do this. The government is there to protect our country, not to protect every single person from every possible harm that can come to them. Our society is so insecure we need the government to be our daddy. Grow up!
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Eric
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Bob wrote: Why don't we just stop talking on the phone while driving. Do we need yet ANOTHER law on the books. We must have 20 million by now. Do we need the government to tell us EVERYTHING we can and cannot, should or should not do? I personally have never heard of ,or know of, anyone who was involved in a accident because they were talking on the phone. Even so, I still try to avoid talking while driving. I don't need the government telling me of yet another thing that is "BANNED". If we don't stop asking the government to protect us from EVERYTHING, they are going to oblige us. Before you know it, we will be told where we can live, where we can drive to, who we can talk to and where we can work. This of course will be for our own good, as we asked them to do this. The government is there to protect our country, not to protect every single person from every possible harm that can come to them. Our society is so insecure we need the government to be our daddy. Grow up! I am a libertarian, but this law makes sense. No one has given any reason why this law is bad. What do you have against this law. The government is telling you what to do for the safety of all of us. Why don't you decide to not stop at a traffic light, since it is only another law passed by the government to help safety?
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Eric
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The reason it needs to be banned, is because there are idiots out there that will do it if it is legal and can injure other people.
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k-dog
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Maybe no one notices this but the handheld itself creates another needless blindspot so your vision is impeded, thus avoiding and/or causing an accident. The law needs to be passed. I received a ticket for it.
Does a phone conversation (probably small talk) trump public safety? Someone please answer this!!
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Reasonable Adult
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Eric,
Most Libertarians that I know would cringe at your remarks. Although that is neither here nor there, you can describe yourself as you like.
Negligent driving is already illegal. Causing an accident because of failure to stay in your lane, failure to yield right of way, etc are already illegal. We don't need another law to ban just one of the many contributing factors to bad driving.
If we, instead, enforced proper driving habits and required extensive driver training before issuing a driver's license, we wouldn't have most of these issues. Of course it's always easier to just ban something that will have little effect (see previous post about results from those states with the ban in place) than to say that most people are horrible drivers and address THAT as the root cause.
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MarkP
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I'm willing to bet that if we get the names of all of the legislators that voted against the cell phone bill and follow them to and from Annapolis and see how many of them have a cell phone stuck in their ear. I'm betting it's a very high percentage.
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concerned non lawyer
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The reason the phone bill didn't pass is it's not a large revenue generator. Speed cameras are. With this admin and ga - it's all about the money
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voice of reason
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in most states where this passed they can only be charged if they violated another law, so if they are driving down the road at the speed limit, talking on the phone they couldnt do anything about it. Its a law with no backing to stop it. So I think its a waste of time to get it passed. Its kind of like jay walking, people do that all the time, its against the law, but no one ever gets a ticket for it.
Also there is already a law on the books for driving while "distracted", but again, its hard to enforce.
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johnn
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for the powers that be to not pass this bill is criminal,how many people must die before thease idoits see the light and not just the money..it goes back to when seat belts were considered bad for the car business,they were believed to implay that the car was unsafe,and just like then as it is now,someone said people are un-safe,and they are un-safe with there cell phones
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LLL
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How about having a bill that bans a lot of distracting things while driving. This would include cell phones, parents turning around and talking to their children in the back seat, putting on makeup, eating, smoking, etc. The problem I have with banning cell phones only is that it overlooks a host of other issues.
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Mac
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MarkP wrote: I'm willing to bet that if we get the names of all of the legislators that voted against the cell phone bill and follow them to and from Annapolis and see how many of them have a cell phone stuck in their ear. I'm betting it's a very high percentage. WOW!! That is IT!!! Right there. They are more concerned about what THEY want to do than they are about the citizenry and what is safest overall!!!! RXCELLENT!!!
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