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It seems that we're about to see a spike in Bluetooth headset sales in Washington.
Posted on 06/24/2008 12:45:17 PM PDT by Stoat
On July 1, the new law takes effect in Washington that bans driving while using a hand-held cell phone.
On July 1, the new law takes effect in Washington that bans driving while using a hand-held cell phone.
Drivers caught holding a mobile phone to their ear risk a $124 ticket. To talk on a phone drivers should use a handsfree headset or speaker phone. But, the law allows exceptions for people reporting an emergency or crime.
The violation is a so-called secondary offense. That means an officer must first stop the driver for some other violations, such as speeding; then the cell phone offense can be added to the ticket.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
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It seems that we're about to see a spike in Bluetooth headset sales in Washington.
This is just the excuse I needed to get rid of my cell phone. It just sits in my car in case of an emergency and I never use it otherwise. Since I can no longer use it when I break down or in bad traffic, it is not worth keeping it.
Yeah... then the next thing you know; blue tooth technology accelerates cell phone tumors by 50%.
Same in Kalifornia.
What a koinkydink.
I wish this would come to Minnesota. On my way to work yesterday morning I was almost t-boned by a woman on a cell phone who ran a red light. And afterwards she was mad at me!
If you have a breakdown you're no longer in motion and so you can legally use the phone while sitting in your car in Washington, without any Bluetooth headset accessory. But...I see that you're in Wyoming....is a similar ban about to be implemented there?
At any rate, I would urge consideration of a different cellphone plan if your interest is in having it 'only' for emergency use. I bought a 'pay as you go' cellphone for Momma Stoat just so that she will always have one in the car. If it's not used, the monthly charge works out to around $7.....a very small price to pay for the peace of mind knowing that she will be able to call for help if necessary.
LMAO
And if gents leave the phone in a belt holster when they answer a call on the headset, the transmission radiation will cause pelvic osteoporosis or testicular cancer instead of a brain tumor :-)
Ladies are lucky....they can get a stylish lead-lined handbag to put their phones in :-)
No one here in WA is under the delusion that this new law will prevent that -- everyone knows they will still get away with using the phone as long as they don't commit a primary offense -- and then the officer has to be there at just the right time to catch that. This is merely "we did something, we feel good now" type legislation.
Yep...mandatory seat belts started out the same way. Then it became a "primary offense." Now, the FedGov funds the national, "Click it, or ticket" campaign.
It won't be long, it will be illegal to talk to other people in your car or tune the radio.
I think there’s another purpose in addition to that. It establishes a possible insurance defense in the case of an accident.
Same in Kalifornia.
What a koinkydink.
The People's Republic of Washington is doing it's utmost to follow California, particularly the worst parts of hard-Left San Francisco, down into the turgid, roiling abyss of jackbooted Socialism.
We have spectacular scenery, but every Memorial Day I take a walk in my North Seattle neighborhood and I see fewer American flags on display. This year, the only one I saw in a ten-block radius was the one at the stoat cave.
"sigh"
You need to get out of Seattle and see the Eastside -
especially east of the Cascades.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
You're right of course....Eastern Washington is 'the sane part' of Washington State and I try to get there as much as I can.
I apologize for perhaps implying that every place in Washington is as bad as Seattle....this was sloppy writing on my part. I was meaning to convey the fact that, unfortunately, the vast majority of legislation coming out of Olympia, which in large measure defines the law and therefore the public image for the rest of Washington, is usually indistinguishable from what pronouncements might come out of a Capitol Hill coffee shop. Yes, there are isolated bunkers of normalcy in Western Washington and a vast expanse of sanity in Eastern Washington, but sadly Olympia appears to be unaware of this fact, and legislates accordingly.
I apologize for not being more clear when I posted earlier.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Since you may find that after you drive past an officer with a cell phone at your ear that you're being pulled over for a 'primary' infraction that you were completely unaware of having committed, and therefore are being cited for both that as well as the cellphone violation, I might suggest that a box of kleenex as well as a stylish Bluetooth headset might be appropriate items to add to your shopping list :-)
The accident I got into involving my cell phone was when I wasn’t using it. I was on my way to open my brother-in-law’s store. The phone ran two different times. I thought it might be an emergency, so pulled off the freeway to find a parking lot to call back from. I was waiting on the off ramp and got rear ended. I wonder if I would have been safer if I had answered.
A friend of mine told me that the number one distraction that causes accidents is tuning the radio. #2 eating. He told me these as I did them, of course. I think cell phone use was something like #4.
I'm very sorry to hear that you had an accident, and I hope that you weren't injured.
With the current gas price dynamics, you can probably pick up a nice shiny (and safe!) Hummer for a near-steal, and you could justify the extra gas expense by how much you're saving on hospital stays due to injuries suffered in tiny cars :-)
"snicker"
Don't worry...I'm sure there's a government solution for all of them. Once you breath into your ignition lock intoxilyzer of your 55-mph speed governed car, and fasten the 10-point seat belt in your isolated driver's compartment where your wrists are manicled to the steering wheel, there will be no way you could risk losing your liberties by breaking the law.
Continuing research will prove adequately that whether they hold the phone or are hands-free, their impairment is practically the same; but the only ones that seem to notice are the drivers around them concentrating on --- ta-daaa--- their driving!
I commuted for an hour and a half each day for 8 years on Interstate 5 and saw the evolution of the problem first-hand.
Driving slower is but one symptom. Erratic speed changes is more common, and wandering the lane from side to side is the third.
It got such that by the time I stopped daily commute, I could identify active cell phone users 9 times out of 10 from 200 yds back.
Of course the law won’t work. It’s not the holding the phone to your ear that makes the accidents, it’s the having the brain concentrating on the conversation that does it. Some people just can’t multi-task.
I refuse to use a phone while driving. When I drive I am totally into driving, and not concerned or bothered by telephones.
I’ve told my clients the same, so they just leave a message...I always get back to them when it’s convenient and safe for me to do so.
Multi-task is corporate BS term for do more, work harder, for less money. Much like the corporate BS term "team player".
Multi-tasking while driving will make you a team player with the dead.
I'll have to agree :-)
I suppose that warping all over the space-time continuum perhaps doesn't do a lot for a lady's 'vivaciousness quotient', although Yeoman Rand always used to set the young stoat heart aflutter....
"sigh"
I don’t think it’s BS, but I’m a natural born multi-tasker. I always have multiple things going, gaming while watching TV, reading and listening to music, working and FR. Always doing more than one thing at a time, keeps me awake.
Depends on what kind of vehicle you drive. Sticks are complicated enough to be right on the border of needing to multi-task just to drive. Motorcycles and semis are past the line. Which is why I drive a stick, when I have to drive an automatic I get a serious case of wandering brain, no left foot action, no shifting, just makes driving too boring. That’s when I do risk becoming a team player with the dead. No cellphone though, don’t like phones. I COULD phone while driving, heck I’ve shifted while hanging a corner with a cig in one hand and a soda in my lap and didn’t spill burn wreck or slip. But I don’t like phones, use them as little as possible, and just plain don’t need one with me at all times.
Hey thats fine when not driving.
If you were on a firing line, concentrating, shooting for accuracy, would you multi-task at the same time? No you wouldn't.
Same while driving. A vehicle is a deadly weapon, laying waste to many daily.
Didn’t read after the first sentence huh?
Maybe not, what specifically are you referring to?
Well first off the fact that I don’t even have a cellphone so there’s no possibility that I’d be using one while driving. And second the fact that if I can’t multi-task I get bored and lose concentration. If I was on the firing line I’d be listening to music, if not physically then in my head, I’m always listening to music, either out in the real world or in my “internal” radio station, keeps the brain in rhythm. That’s how natural multi-taskers are, there’s always some part of the brain doing something not related to the task at hand, contemplating dinner, figuring out what to do this weekend, listening to tunes, always something.
No it doesn't. Deadly weapons like firearms and vehicles, are not the venues to be multi-tasking.
Gezz I hate that term.
And did you bother to read past the first sentence of the second paragraph? You’re reacting to content that only exists in your head. Time to stop assuming and start reading. Maybe you’re doing a little too much multi-tasking.
Look slick, if you want to multi-task while driving down the highway, be my guest!!
Look slick maybe you should READ WHAT WAS WRITTEN before getting your panties in a bunch. What’s apparently making you mad is 100% a figment of YOUR IMAGINATION.
Don’t get mad at me for your hallucinations SLICK.
Hmmm, you seem angry...Maybe ya ought to turn down that internal music in your head.
If a way could be devised to muzzle back-seat drivers, I might just sign on to such a proposal :-)
PASSENGER; "Stoat, you're going the wrong way"
STOAT:: "Umm...actually, this is the right way, but perhaps not the exact route you're accustomed to."
PASSENGER: "Then it's the wrong way!" (passenger starts to cry)
STOAT: "Okay then, I'm sorry, my fault. Which route would you like to take? We can go any way you like."
PASSENGER: "I don't remember the names of the streets! I just know what the houses look like along the way!"
STOAT: "Okay then, would you like to drive around until we see a house or landmark that you recognize, and then go from there?"
PASSENGER: "No! That's a waste of gas!" (sobbing)
STOAT: (banging head against steering wheel)
Let’s see some jackass comes on and starts yelling at me because he ass-u-med I talk on a phone while driving even though I explicitly said TWICE that I don’t even have a cellphone, he even insults me in the process, and then he wonders why I might seem a bit annoyed. Maybe you should turn down the a$$hole that is your head.
I don't do cell phones in cars, not even hands-free. Studies show that hands-free is better than holding it, but not by much. Apparently it's the redirected attention that makes you dangerous, not holding the phone in itself.
I'm sure you're right....makes sense to me.
After the accident statistics remain about the same with headset users, the politicians will embark upon a new "crisis session" to make headsets and hands-free telephony illegal as well :-)
I never said you did. You're the one that stated or implied, "It depends on the vehicle" when referring to multi-tasking.
I merely stated that one who multi-tasks while driving will end up being a team player with the dead.
Perhaps you should review what was said here. And please, try and relax.
You went off on me for NOTHING. You ranted on me about the evils of cellphones while driving even though I said I couldn’t. Because you couldn’t be bother to ACTUALLY read what was ACTUALLY written. And you know it, heck you even admitted you didn’t read the whole thing.
Had you read the rest of that paragraph you’d have found I was talking about how driving different types of vehicles is INNATELY multi-tasking. But nooooooooo, you couldn’t be bothered to actually read what was written, that would get in the way of your rant.
I’m relaxed, I’d be more relaxed if I didn’t have to put up with assumers that are too lazy to read what’s written and start ranting based entirely on the contents of their head. But in spite of dorks like you I’m relaxed. Perhaps you should read before you write.
Ya note it says nothing about cell phones? Here is how you responded:
Depends on what kind of vehicle you drive.
Again, if you want to multi-task while you drive, I could care less. You can drive and do what ever you like.
I was talking about how driving different types of vehicles is INNATELY multi-tasking.
You're suggesting that driving a manual 4 speed is multi-tasking while driving?
You are joking right?
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