N.J. sets $100 fine for phone use in car

The Star Ledger ^ | November 3, 2007 | SUSAN K. LIVIO

[Eric Blair 2084]

Beginning March 1, people who send text messages or use hand-held cell phones while they drive should be prepared to fork over $100.

Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill yesterday that makes talking on a hand-held cell phone a primary offense, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. New Jersey becomes the fourth state to enact such a measure, joining California, Connecticut and New York.

Currently, a law enacted in 2004 allows New Jersey police officers who spot drivers talking on a hand-held cell phone to ticket them, but only if they were caught committing another motor vehicle offense.

"Sometimes it's absolutely frightening to see people text messaging while they're driving," said Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), one of the bill's sponsors. "It's like an accident waiting to happen. Hopefully this new law will remind people that a cell phone is not a license to be careless."

Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester), also a sponsor, said he hopes the threat of a ticket will discourage teenagers from engaging in risky behavior.

"An increasing number of car accidents, especially among teen drivers, have been attributed to using cell phones or other hand-held electronic devices driving," Moriarty said.

The bill, (S-1099/A-4146) carves out exceptions for emergencies. The $100 fine does not carry motor vehicle "points" or surcharges.

David Weinstein, spokesman for AAA-Mid Atlantic, called the bill "a step forward" for driver safety, but thinks New Jersey could do better. "We will continue to try to get a full distracted driver bill," said Weinstein of a measure that has been stalled in the legislature.

[Eric Blair 2084]

In the rest of todays nanny state baby killing news from the Democratic People's Republic of New Jersey, the article described the other laws that Comrade Corzine signed yesterday including:

Corzine also signed a pharmacy access law (S-1195/A-992) that requires pharmacies to fill all prescriptions, regardless of an individual pharmacist's religious or moral objections.

The bill emerged from the controversy surrounding the over-the-counter sale of so-called "morning-after" contraceptives. The bill was later amended, at the urging of the American Civil Liberties Union, to hold the pharmacy management, not the individual pharmacist who may object, responsible for filling prescriptions.

"Today's law strikes an important balance between protecting patients' health and religious freedom," ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs said.

New Jersey Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, is still not satisfied. "This bill sends a chilling, discriminatory message to individuals with religious or moral beliefs that, if they are pharmacists, they need not apply in the state of New Jersey," Marie Tasy, executive director, said.

So let me summarize the rules here in the DPRNJ for out of staters....

NOT OK..........

OK.......

This weeks' sign that the apocalypse is upon us.

[martin_fierro]

They'll enforce it like the seat belt law.

[Alberta's Child]

New Jersey has moved beyond that thin line that defines a post-rational social order. I don't know anyone in this state who takes ANY of its laws seriously . . . and that includes Governor Crash-Test-Dummy himself.

[mewzilla]

NYS has a cell phone law. Enforcement is not a priority, for a variety of reasons. As a result, all I can see stemming from the law’s passage is that people are developing an even greater contempt for the law.

[Eric Blair 2084]

[Eric Blair 2084]

A few months ago we had a seatbelt law crackdown complete with police roadblocks.

It’s a police state and a nanny state.

[longtermmemmory]

laws are only for the little people.

not for the “do you know who I am?” crowd.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Big Brother, Nanny State, Grant Junky, Bogus Study, Junk Science, Social Engineering, Sheeple Control, Health Nazi

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[Nick Thimmesch]

It’s not so much the fine and/or enforsement, it’s that this is a typical piecemeal way of addressing a much bigger isssue, that of driver control, attention to surroundings, and capability — with strict enforcement there possible — that is the key to optimal driving conditions for all. Be they an impaired driver, a “distracted” driver (which anyone using any form of communication, including, but not limited to cell phones be they hand held or handless, is engaging in while driving), or otherwise, all I know if that they COULD be driving near or around me, my precious five year old, and YOU. So they had better have their s-together when they’re doing it no matter what the excuse or distraction.

[Renegade]

Amazing how many State Troopers I see chatting on THEIR cell phones while speeding down the parkway .

[Calpernia]

I thought that fine started yesterday? I guess I misheard?

[jillym]

Actually, I agree with this law although I think Corzinne is a hypocrite. A few months ago, my son and his fiance were talking on their cell phones to each other and all of a sudden, my son heard his fiance scream, a crash and then nothing. He panicked and called us not knowing what to do, trying to figure out where the accident occurred, etc.

The end of this story is that she lived but her car ws totaled. I will never forget the fear and the panic in the sound of my son's voice when he called.

[Eric Blair 2084]

laws are only for the little people. not for the “do you know who I am?” crowd.

That's why things like smoker bans in bars only apply to the unwashed masses in the proletariet who want a beer and a cigarette after a long day of work. Cigar Bars, where the bourgeois ruling elite go to smoke $125 Montechristo cigars and drink $200 bottles of cabernet are exempt.

[Calpernia]

I thought I heard the law was going to have a quota?

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

When liberal laws fail to produce the desired result, liberals always demand a strengthening of the same failed laws.
Then they fail again. Liberals just don’t get it.

[bill1952]

This is amusing. Actually, I’m laughing.

Of course I do not live in the Peoples Republic of New Jersey - Or Mother Russia.

If I did, I would not be so amused. - Of course, I would leave, but thats another story
But hey - just wait until they raise it to $200.00
Why didn’t they just start out with $500.00?

Aren’t JJ and Al going to rush forward and say that this law unfairly targets poor blacks who cannot afford $200?
That its just another way for whitey to beat the black man down?

Wazzup Jessie?

[Calpernia]

I would agree with you if our state was for issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. But our state did say they want to do that too.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Well, if nobody disagreed it would be a pretty boring discussion.

My pet peeve is octogenarian drivers who can’t see. A 95 year old legally blind guy ran a red light and broadsided my cousin.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Did you see the article a couple of days ago about all of the illegals in DPRNJ who get their licenses out of state?

[Alberta's Child]

That's exactly my point. There are already laws on the books right now that deal with driving erratically, driving recklessly, failure to keep to the right on a multi-lane highway, etc. -- you know, all the things that happen when drivers are distracted. The state of New Jersey would be a far safer place to drive IF THEY SIMPLY ENFORCED THOSE LAWS THAT ARE ALREADY IN PLACE.

If some @sshole drives through a red light and crashes into me, I don't give a flaming sh!t if he's on a cell phone, he's drunk, he's blind, or he's just dumb as a bag of rocks. The government isn't doing anyone any favors when it pretends the cell phone is the problem instead of the driver.

And it's particularly laughable for this to be signed into law by New Jersey's most notorious violator of its motor vehicle statutes.