Posted on 07/24/2012 12:53:04 AM PDT by Altariel
Banning texting while driving is one issue, but what about outlawing "distracted driving" as a whole? That's the burning question the Bowling Green City Council faces as they introduced new distracted driving legislation to the community on Tuesday night.
According to The BG News, the ordinance would ban any type of distraction that takes the driver's attention away from the road. While some residents expressed concern that this vague definition would violate their rights, personal injury attorney Mike D. Bell says the heart of the ordinance is in everyone's best interest.
"I understand the intent behind the law and it's great that the legislature is taking advantage of this opportunity to come out to stop distracted driving," Bell said. "As I understand this proposed law, if there's a failure to maintain full time and attention by the driver, they can be cited with a $25 ticket plus court costs--no points on the license--and it's for any driver."
Bell says the proposed law is different from the state texting legislation coming into effect at the end of August, which will ban minor drivers from using any handheld device in a vehicle and adult drivers from texting. Bowling Green's law, if passed, would penalize distracted driving of all forms, which could include eating, changing the radio station and gazing out a side window.
"Texting and driving and handheld devices and Bluetooth are all convenient, but when they're used in the car, they could be incredibly dangerous and we all know that," Bell said. "Bowling Green City Council believes that this legislation is necessary for them."
The council will hold two more meetings to discuss the ordinance with the public before they cast their votes.
Texting is incredibly dangerous. I have seen more people doing this weaving all over the road. Same goes for applying makeup.
I guess while driving in their fair city I had better curtail my dashboard keyboard playing.
I saw some lady applying makeup in the lane next to me. I got so irritated that I nearly cut myself shaving!
An amazingly broad vaguely worded law that will in essence
allow an LEO to pull you over for virtually any reason
whatsoever for the express purpose of stealing $25 from you.
Political hacks that came up and voted for this BS should be
tarred, feathered then hung. It’s way past time for the
ego driven bastards that infest public office to start
fearing the people.
Talking to a passenger in the car is “distracting”, having children in the car is “distracting”, bill boards are “distracting”, idiots in other cars are distracting, a pretty girl walking down the street is distracting - when will this stop?
I guess we should ban all sound and other passengers from the vehicle, etc. Anything can be a distraction that hurts or even kills - accidents happen with bikes, scooters, horses, heck, even walking. I guess the “safe” thing is to not travel anywhere.
You can’t make everything thing “safe” without taking away liberty of movement and travel. Lawyers are the real winners in these things.
These fees can count multiple times on the same ticket, depending upon how it's written - after all, the cop has you pulled over. How about a bad license plate light? $19 + $100. Or if you're using the plates from the previous owner ($169...) And if that distraction made you actually drive poorly - unsafe lane change fine is $29 + $100...
Think more of the cop as being a bank teller - their costs are minimal and can be replaced with a cheap computerized gizmo. But behind that teller is a bank manager, a regional office, a national office, shareholders - and they all want a piece of the action here.
Yep, $25, a cheap fine to ensure safety on the road. And a jackpot for spinning people through the courts, and making the money fly.
Don't we have enough laws? yes too much already. Too much government and too many laws.
Some media reporter or some politician says oh this is such a threat and then they get people to say well we ought to do something and write a law etc. Then what that does is give the government more power and grow the government : so now we have the monstrous government at all levels and it all started because someone said we have to do something about this or that. Enough .We've had enough of this crap. This is how they take our freedom and our birthright. Government cannot make things perfect nor even better . And even if it could it is not worth it to empower these gov morons and to take our freedom and prosperity. Enough with the laws and government etc. government at all levels keep writing more and more laws every week it seems. Where is that getting us. Funny how the U.S. actually prospered when we didn't have all these damn laws ,the hundreds of thousands of pages of government laws and regulations. We drove for 100 years already , and people have done all kinds of things while driving.Don't like it then move out to an Island and leave our freedom alone( that is to politicians and nanny blomberg and nanny Obama.
Do it. Make everything illegal.
In fact, ban children from the car.
I don’t recall saying write another law. I just said it was dangerous.
Shouldn’t be distracted with GPS. Take it out.
Shouldn’t be distracted with an annoying passenger like a whinny person saying “we are lost”, “you are driving to fast” (always cracks me as I watch cars go flying by), “Why don’t you just pass this idiot and why are you in the slow lane. Don’t you know how to drive? (Cracks me up again, from the same person who complained about driving to fast.)
“Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera”
Shouldn’t be distracted with kids in the car. Leave them home.
All wipers should be federal mandated to have laser on them so they wipe as needed and you don’t have to figure out what speed to put them on or where the “turn on switch thingy is”.
No cute toys or ornaments any where near the front window, on the dashboard or hanging from a mirror. (Sorry bobble head Chihuahua)
No cute toys or ornaments any where near the back window, on the deck or stickers. (Again, sorry bobble head Chihuahua)
No stickers on the side windows (impairs your view)
No dry cleaning hanging from anywhere in the car. Makes noise and impairs your view.
No ashtray, no smoking, no eating and drinking anything in the car (you should have both hands on the wheel at all times, in the 10 and 2 O’clock positions.
No putting on lipstick or make up ever and no shaving.
No more vanity mirrors, you shouldn’t be looking at anything but the road.
No pets ever. Never know what they are going to do.
Exceptions:
Police -
3 to 5 radio channels transmitting information all the time, computer sending info all the time, GPS sending info all the time, they can talk on radio and switch to secure channels, Cell phone use is frequent.They do have drinks in car; have to look at license plates as they travel down the road, look for people in distress, look for crime, look for infractions, etc.
Truck Drivers -
CB is allowed, GPS is allowed, and Radio is allowed, pets in the front seat or back of cab, lunch, dinner and snacks. Cooler for their drinks and yes drinks, Cell phone, a bunch more dials of information to ensure the truck and trailer are running correctly.
Airline Pilots -
Just look at all that crap in the cockpit! How do they do it?
Pffft!
Whut Evuh!
You know how hards itz iz to dye your hair and trim your unmentionables in rush owWuh?
funny how we drove for 100 years and people did all kinds of things while driving. Now people trust these government morons to make things better for us.
It's always some fake threat that they the media and government want so save us from like CO2, global warming, distracted driving, the BP oil spill etc. . yeah sure they are such angels. NO more like evil demons. Think why are they proposing such laws. Politicians , government and the media are pure evil . To entrust all this power in them is really dumb of people .
I'm so ready for CW2.
The government is dangerous and so are the gov idiots who are pure evil. Funny how we survived 100 years of distracted driving but now we won’t survive this growing government.
LOL I was driving and must have been going to slow for this driver behind me. He was honking and shouting. I just happen to have 3 100 lb or over dogs laying down in the back seat. When the driver came up beside me shooting me the bird; I told my babies to come kiss Mommy. They did and the driver backed off really fast.
I think I would too if 3 massive heads showed up.
As long as "everyone" is a REVENUE sucking, non producing, over compensated, socialist, union government employee.
Pretty soon you will be cited for looking at your side mirrors as distracted driving. Then these yahoos will wonder why accidents are increasing.
I can’t tell how many times I’ve almost had an accident when staring at them purdy girls who want to wash my car for their high school boosters....
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